You should get a Hep B shot as an adult (two doses) if you didn’t as a child, and if you engage in these risky activities.
• Unprotected sex
• Sharing needles
• Sharing razors or toothbrushes
• Come into direct contact with another’s blood (who has the disease)
HPV
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most widely spread sexually transmitted infection. You get it through “intimate relations,” notes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They report that, “HPV is so common that nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.” As a woman, the CDC recommends that if you didn’t get vaccinated as a pre-teen then get a “catch-up” vaccination (up until age 26).
So if everyone has it, then what’s the point in getting the vaccine? Right? Wrong. HPV can cause cancer, most commonly cervical cancer in women. However, men are also at risk; they can develop throat cancer from oral sexual relations with someone carrying the HPV virus. The vaccination for HPV comes in three doses for women aged 19 and up and in six doses for men of the same age.
Measles, Mumps, and Rubella
Declining a party invitation because you are sick with the measles, mumps or rubella (MMR) is virtually unheard of. However, before the MMR vaccines were developed, these diseases were prevalent, albeit mostly in children.