Typhoid vaccination: the Asian experience

The WHO has recently issued updated recommendations for the programmatic use of new-generation typhoid vaccines in high-risk areas of countries where typhoid fever is still endemic. Countries have subsequently been instructed to discuss how these recommendations can be implemented and to develop plans for targeted typhoid vaccination. These plans can be informed by the experiences with typhoid vaccination that several Asian countries have had. This article reviews past and current typhoid vaccination programs that have taken place in Thailand (using the old whole-cell vaccine) and in China, Vietnam and India (using the new-generation injectable Vi polysaccharide vaccine). This review also describes recent typhoid Vi vaccine demonstration projects that were conducted in five Asian countries.