Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B vaccination at the pharmacy

Since 2 July 2026 trained pharmacists may vaccinate adults against Hepatitis A and against Hepatitis B. The rule sits in § 20c of the Infektionsschutzgesetz, the German infection protection act. It covers any inactivated vaccine, meaning one that contains no pathogens able to multiply. The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, the German federal institute for vaccines, lists every Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B vaccine licensed in Germany as inactivated. Pharmacies give both from the age of 18.

Permitted is not the same as available. A pharmacist who vaccinates has to be trained for it by a physician, and for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B that training is new: the Bundesapothekerkammer and the Bundesärztekammer, the federal chambers of pharmacists and of physicians, are drawing it up now. The pharmacies that offer the two vaccinations are listed further down this page.

Who the Hepatitis A vaccination is recommended to

Adults at raised risk of infection, not everyone. The Ständige Impfkommission at the Robert Koch-Institut, Germany’s standing committee on vaccination, recommends the Hepatitis A vaccination for particular risk groups. Its recommendation of 2026 names these:

• people at raised risk of infection through sexual contact
• people who often receive blood components, with haemophilia for instance, and people who inject drugs
• people with a disease of the liver, or one that involves the liver
• residents of psychiatric institutions and comparable care institutions for people with a behavioural disorder or cerebral damage

Work is the other route in. The committee recommends the Hepatitis A vaccination where the risk of infection at work is raised: in the health service, including ambulance service, kitchen, laboratory, technical and cleaning work. Work with sewage contact counts too, in sewers and treatment plants for instance. So does work in day-care centres, children’s homes, workshops for people with disabilities and accommodation for asylum seekers. Trainees, interns, students and volunteers at comparable risk are included.

Who the Hepatitis B vaccination is recommended to

People at high risk of a severe course, and people at raised risk of infection. The groups overlap only in part with those for Hepatitis A. The 2026 recommendation distinguishes four:

• people in whom a weakened immune system or an existing illness makes a severe course of Hepatitis B likely: HIV, Hepatitis C or dialysis for instance
• people at raised risk of infection outside work: contact with Hepatitis B carriers in the family or household, sexual behaviour with a high risk of infection, injecting drugs, remand and prison
• people at raised risk of infection at work: medical institutions including laboratory and cleaning staff, ambulance service, workplace first aid, the police, prisons, accommodation for asylum seekers and institutions for people with disabilities
• travel, after an assessment of the risk in the individual case

The committee calls these groups examples and not an exhaustive list. The actual risk of exposure decides. After a successful Hepatitis B vaccination, the same recommendation says, boosters are generally not needed. It makes exceptions for people with a weakened immune system and for people at particularly high risk of infection.

What applies before a trip

The recommendation turns on the destination for Hepatitis A, and on the risk while travelling for Hepatitis B. The Ständige Impfkommission issues its travel recommendations jointly with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tropenmedizin, Reisemedizin und Globale Gesundheit (DTG). That is the German society for tropical medicine, travel medicine and global health. The edition of 2 July 2026 carries maps and country tables.

For Hepatitis A they recommend the vaccination for travel to endemic areas, meaning areas where the virus is widespread. For Hepatitis B they recommend it where risk factors are present. The first risk factor they name is a journey longer than four weeks, added up across several trips. The others are unprotected sexual contact with strangers, and medical or cosmetic procedures in the destination country. Tattoos, piercings and work with a high risk of injury also count.

Timing separates Hepatitis A from Hepatitis B as well. Protective antibodies against Hepatitis A form in most vaccinated people twelve to fifteen days after the first dose, the committee and the DTG report. Because the incubation period is long, they call the Hepatitis A vaccination worthwhile even shortly before departure. The combination vaccine against both is the exception: it contains half as much Hepatitis A antigen as a vaccine against Hepatitis A alone. Protection against Hepatitis A then begins only after the second dose.

Who pays

For a recommended vaccination the statutory health insurer, for a holiday trip usually you. Who is entitled is set out in Annex 1 of the Schutzimpfungs-Richtlinie, the directive of the Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss.

For travel the law draws a line. § 20i of the Fünftes Sozialgesetzbuch, book five of the German social code, covers travel-related vaccinations. The entitlement holds only when the stay abroad is work- or training-related. Many insurers refund travel vaccinations beyond that, voluntarily, as a benefit under their own statutes. The committee and the DTG advise travellers to check that with their own insurer first. Where the trip abroad is work-related, the vaccination is reimbursable through the employer.

What it otherwise costs is set by each pharmacy. Ask there before you book.