Jobs, Lifestyle, and Travel
Vaccines you need for jobs, lifestyle, and travel
Where you work, how you live, and where you travel can all raise your risk for certain diseases and your need for different vaccines. A healthcare worker, a college freshman moving into a dorm, and someone planning a trip abroad may each need protection that goes beyond the routine schedule.
Additional vaccines you may need are safe, widely available, and easy to fit into your regular checkup or pharmacy visit. The best first step is a quick conversation with your healthcare provider about your job, daily life, and any upcoming travel. Together, you can make sure you’re protected against the diseases you’re most likely to encounter.
Vaccines You May Need Based on Your Job
Some jobs put you in closer contact with diseases or with people who are especially vulnerable to them. If your work exposes you to blood or bodily fluids, sick patients, animals, laboratory samples, or large groups of people, you may need vaccines that the average adult doesn’t. Getting vaccinated protects you, your family, and your customers.
If you’re a healthcare provider or in a clinical setting, you may be at higher risk for serious infectious diseases and you could unintentionally spread them to patients. This includes physicians, nurses, EMTs, dental professionals, pharmacists, medical or nursing students, lab technicians, home health aides, hospital volunteers, or clinic staff members.
Recommended vaccines for health care workers include:
- Flu (every year)
- Hepatitis B
- MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella)
- Chickenpox (varicella)
- Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis)
- COVID-19
- Meningococcal disease (for certain lab workers routinely exposed to the bacteria)
Your state or employer may require some of these vaccines. For more, see Immunize.org’s Healthcare Personnel Vaccination Recommendations.
Other jobs with added risk
- People working with animals (veterinarians, animal handlers, and wildlife and lab staff) may need a rabies vaccine
- Laboratory and research staff who work with specific pathogens may need hepatitis B, meningococcal, or other vaccines
- Public safety workers (police, firefighters, and EMS, for example) may have an added risk of exposure to hepatitis B through blood and bodily fluids
- Anyone whose work involves potential exposure to blood or human waste may need hepatitis A and hepatitis B
Talk with your provider or occupational health office about which vaccines your specific role calls for. They might also recommend on-site or off-site clinics that can meet your work schedule.
If you’re a healthcare provider or in a clinical setting, you may be at higher risk for serious infectious diseases and you could unintentionally spread them to patients.
Your background, health conditions, and everyday choices can affect which vaccines you need. None of the factors below are cause for alarm, but they are worth mentioning to your provider so nothing gets missed. Talk to your healthcare provider about your lifestyle to find out which vaccines are right for you.
Factors that may point to a need for additional vaccines include:
- Smoking: If you smoke, you may need pneumococcal and COVID-19 vaccines
- Being a man who has sex with men (MSM): You may need hepatitis A, hepatitis B, HPV, and mpox vaccines
- Having more than one sexual partner or a new partner: You may need hepatitis B and HPV vaccines
- Using injectable or non-injectable drugs: You may need hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccines
- Living in a college dorm or other group setting: First-year students in residence halls and other people in close quarters are at higher risk for meningococcal disease and should be up to date on the MenACWY and MenB vaccines or the MenABCWY vaccine
- Being born outside the U.S.: You may need hepatitis A or hepatitis B vaccines if you didn’t receive them as a child
- Experiencing homelessness: You may need hepatitis A and COVID-19 vaccines
- Having a chronic health condition (heart, lung, liver, or kidney disease, diabetes, or a weakened immune system): You may need additional vaccines such as pneumococcal and hepatitis B
- Welcoming an international adoptee: Everyone in the household should be up to date on their vaccines, and you may need travel vaccines before visiting the child’s country of origin
Vaccines For Travelers
Travel can expose you to serious diseases that are rare or nonexistent in the U.S. The vaccines you may need depend on where you’re going, how long you’ll stay, what you’ll be doing, and your own health history. Some destinations may require proof of certain vaccines before they’ll let you enter.
If you have a trip planned, schedule a visit with your provider or a travel medicine clinic at least 4 to 6 weeks before you leave. Some vaccines take time to become fully effective, and others are given as a series over several weeks.
Before traveling, make sure everyone in your family is current on the vaccines recommended for their age. This is just as important for traveling in the U.S. as it is for travel to another country. Crowded airports, train stations, and other busy travel settings bring together people from all over the world, making it easy for diseases like measles to spread to unvaccinated travelers.
What vaccines are needed for your destination?
Use CDC’s Travelers’ Health Destinations search tool for an up-to-date list of the vaccines recommended/required for entry. You will also find advice on food, water, insect bites, and other health risks. Check several months before your visit to have enough time to schedule a provider visit and get any vaccines you will need for travel.
Explore CDC’s Think Travel Vaccine Guide for an overview of how travel vaccines work.
Travelers with weakened immune systems, older adults, and anyone who is pregnant should review their plans with a provider, since some travel vaccines aren’t recommended during pregnancy. Pregnant travelers can also review the ACOG Maternal Immunization Schedule.
Make sure you and your family are up to date on routine vaccines
To ensure that your family is up to date on their vaccines, view or download the immunization schedules and talk to your healthcare provider.
