AITC Immunization & Testing
Immunizations for Adults
AITC offers all vaccines that the CDC recommends for adults in the USA (for work, for school, for immigration, or for personal health):
- Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine (MMRII®)
- Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis vaccine (Adacel®)
- Tetanus-Diphtheria (only) vaccine (Decavac®)
- Chickenpox [varicella] vaccine (Varivax®)
- Shingles [herpes zoster] vaccine (Zostavax®)
- Hepatitis A vaccine (Havrix®)
- Hepatitis B vaccine (Engerix B®)
- Hepatitis A&B combination vaccine (Twinrix®)
- HPV vaccine (Gardasil®) - now FDA-approved for both males & females (ages 9-26 yrs)
- Flu vaccine (traditional injection or FluMist® nose spray vaccine)
- Pneumoccoccal [pneumonia] vaccine (Pneumovax®)
- Meningococcal [meningitis] vaccine (Menactra® or Menomune®)
See CDC recommendations for adult immunizations.
Adult immunizations are offered daily on a drop-in basis. No appointment is necessary. See prices.
Immunizations for Children
We offer the following services for children accompanied by a parent or legal guardian:
- Travel health visit (including vaccines and prescriptions)
- Flu vaccine (traditional injection or FluMist® nose spray vaccine)
- HPV (Gardasil®) vaccine for males and females 9+ years of age
Please note: AITC is not a primary care clinic, and does not offer routine childhood immunization services. Please visit your pediatrician, family doctor, or neighborhood clinic for routine pediatric immunizations.
Appointments are required for international travelers.
Flu vaccination and Gardasil® are offered daily on a drop-in basis. No appointment is necessary.
Blood Testing
A blood test can provide proof of immunity without having to be re-vaccinated. See our information sheet: Testing for Immunity to Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. Diseases. AITC can check your immunity to:
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Measles / Mumps / Rubella
- Chickenpox
- Rabies
- Polio
You can be infected with hepatitis B and not know it. AITC offers testing to determine your hepatitis B infection status. See our information sheet: Testing for Hepatitis B Infection. Consider hepatitis B testing if you answer yes to any of the following:
- Were you or your parents born in Asia, Pacific Islands, Africa, Eastern Europe, or the Amazon Basin in South America?
- Have you had a sex partner with hepatitis B or lived in the same household as someone with hepatitis B?
- Are you a male who has had sex with males?
AITC also offers blood typing for adventure/wilderness travelers and others concerned that emergency blood transfusion could be needed overseas, who wish to carry a card with their blood type.
Results are available within 5 business days (and often sooner). We will mail or fax your results; you may discuss your results with an AITC nurse by phone or in person, at no additional charge.
Blood testing is offered daily on a drop-in basis; no appointment is necessary. There is a cost for each test, plus a small fee to draw your blood. See prices.
TB (tuberculosis) Testing
TB testing shows whether your immune system recognizes TB or not. Here's how it works:
A "positive" test means that your immune system recognizes TB, and that you developed TB infection at some time in the past. However, a positive test does not mean that you have active TB disease right now -- the TB infection could be either active or inactive. Active TB disease is bad for your health and contagious to other people. Inactive disease is not contagious. And so, after a positive test, you will need further testing to determine whether you have active or inactive TB infection.
A "negative" test means that your system does not recognize TB, and that you have not been infected with TB. After a negative test, further testing is usually not needed.
AITC offers 2 types of tests for TB.
- TB skin testing. This is the traditional (and least expensive) method. It requires 2 visits to clinic. On the first visit, a nurse will place a tiny amount of test fluid in the skin of your forearm using an ultra-thin needle. You will be required to return to the clinic in 48-72 hours to have a nurse read the test by checking the skin of your forearm. TB skin tests are regularly offered Mon, Tue, Wed, and Friday. We discourage TB testing on Thursdays (and on the Friday before a long weekend), as it will not be possible to read the test within 72 hours.
- TB testing using the QuantiferonTB-Gold (QFT-G) blood test. This is a newer (and more expensive) method that has 2 advantages: 1) In people born outside the USA who received an anti-TB vaccine called BCG vaccine as children, the QFT-G test is more accurate than TB skin testing; 2) Just one clinic visit is required for the blood test, and so the QFT-G can be performed with clients who are unable to return for a second visit.
TB testing is offered daily on a drop-in basis; no appointment is necessary. See prices.
Flu Vaccination
AITC offers seasonal flu vaccine every year, starting in the late summer. AITC also offers seasonal flu vaccine year-round for international travelers. Unlike in the US and Europe, flu season occurs year-round in the tropics and during the months of May though September in the Southern Hemisphere.
Our flu vaccine express service will get you in and out quickly.
- Vaccine available for children age 3 years and up and for adults ($23)
- Limited supply of preservative-free vaccine for pregnant women ($23)
- Limited supply of preservative-free vaccine for children age 6-35 months. ($23)
- Vaccine by nasal spray (FluMist®) for healthy, non-pregnant persons age 2-49 years ($33) *
- Vaccine available for children age 3 years and up and for adults ($15)
- Limited supply of preservative-free vaccine for pregnant women ($15)
- Vaccine available for children age 6-35 months (not preservative-free) ($15)
* Please note: If you have asthma, lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, have a weakened immune system or take immune suppressing drugs, or are pregnant, or if you are younger than age 2 or older than age 49, you cannot get nasal spray vaccine. To help with your selection please see our white paper: "Flu Shot or Flu Mist?"
Flu vaccination is offered on a drop-in basis. No appointment is necessary. See prices.
Pneumococcal Vaccination
With the current 2009 H1N1 Swine influenza pandemic, infections with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria (also known as Pneumococcal infections) are being found among fatal cases in both children and adults. This is similar to what happened during other influenza pandemics of the 20th century, when bacterial pneumonia caused by pneumococcal bacteria was a frequent cause of illness and death.
Vaccination against pneumococcal infection is now part of routine childhood immunization before the age of 2 years. However, most adults today have never received this vaccine.
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends vaccination against pneumococcal disease, with a vaccine called Pneumovax®, for:
- everyone age 65 years and older;
- persons age 19 - 64 years who smoke cigarettes or have asthma; and
- persons age 2 - 64 years with chronic heart or lung disease, diabetes, or a weakened immune system
The CDC has additional information on pneumococcal vaccination.
Pneumococcal vaccination is offered at AITC on a drop-in basis. No appointment is necessary. Supply is plentiful. See prices.