Why combine them
Hepatitis A and hepatitis B reach you by entirely different routes - one through food and water, one through blood and body fluids - but a long or adventurous trip tends to involve both kinds of risk at once. Given separately that is a two-dose course and a three-dose course, five injections and five appointments.
The combined vaccine does it in three. Same number of visits as hepatitis B alone, with hepatitis A included, and at the end of it you have roughly twenty-five years of hepatitis A cover and long-term hepatitis B cover.
When separate vaccines are the better buy
If you only need hepatitis A, take the single vaccine - two doses, finished, cheaper. The combined course is three doses and there is no sense paying for hepatitis B you do not need.
If you have already completed a hepatitis A course, the same logic applies in reverse: single hepatitis B is the route. We will work out which is cheaper for your actual history at the appointment, and both price lists are published so you can check the arithmetic yourself.
The accelerated option
Adults travelling sooner than the standard schedule allows can be given doses on day nought, day seven and day twenty-one, with a fourth dose at twelve months to complete it. That makes a three-week departure workable.
Children follow a different pattern - the paediatric product uses a two-dose schedule in some age groups and three in others, which is why the price list shows a range rather than one figure. We will tell you which applies to your child before anything is given.