Typhoid Vaccination

[johna]

Back to work soon and I was just checking my vaccinations, does any one know how long a Typhoid vaccination is valid for?

[wasabi]

I think there may be more than one type, using live and non live virus. The one I got lasts 5 years. Not sure which type it is.

[Sheryl]

The live vaccine (oral) lasts for 5 years (needs a series of doses to begin with tho)

The inactivated vaccine (injection) lasts for for 5 years

That is with respect to duration.

But the degree of protection afforded by either is not that good (I think in the vicinity of 50%) it is one of the least effective vaccines. For this reason as well as fact that incidence of typhoid in Thailand does not seem very high, I don't rank it very high in importance. You will still need all the usual food and drink precautions, both because of risk of other food/water born disease and because the vaccines give only partial protection against typhoid. (Spoken by one who both had the vaccine and got typhoid! )

It has been suggested that, even though the current vaccines often fail to prevent typhoid they will at least ensure a more mild case; maybe true, I don't know.

There are newer typhoid vaccines in the works in advanced state of clinical trials which will hopefully give a much better level of protection, but not yet ready for market.