Is the typhoid vaccine safe and effective? Here’s what you need to know

For the first time, Bangladesh has introduced free typhoid vaccination for children, joining countries like Pakistan and Nepal where the vaccine has already been administered.

The Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TCV), safe for children aged nine months to 16 years, has shown strong efficacy in large-scale trials. A study conducted in Nepal on over 20,000 children, published in The Lancet Global Health in 2021, found the vaccine to be 81 percent effective in the first year and 79 percent in the second. Reported side effects were limited to mild fever or temporary pain at the injection site.

The Lancet study highlighted that Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Nepal showed the highest rate of typhoid contamination in South Asia. Outbreaks of cephalosporin-resistant typhoid call for the urgency of vaccination.

The Nepal trial, conducted jointly by Oxford University and the Patan Academy of Health Sciences, involved 20,014 children in Lalitpur. Participants were randomly divided into two groups: one received the TCV developed by Bharat Biotech International, while the other was given a meningitis A vaccine. Over a year of monitoring showed only seven confirmed typhoid cases among the TCV group, compared to 34 in the control group receiving meningitis vaccination.

Researchers concluded that TCV significantly reduces the risk of typhoid infection. Based on this evidence, the WHO has recommended that typhoid-endemic countries incorporate TCV into their national immunisation programmes.

At a press briefing in Dhaka last Thursday, Prof Md Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said 4.78 lakh people were infected with typhoid in Bangladesh in 2021, with 8,000 deaths. Of those, 68 percent were children. He noted that while comprehensive national data is lacking, the prevalence of typhoid appears to be rising.

Typhoid, a severe bacterial infection spread through contaminated food and water, remains a major public health concern in South Asia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 9 million people contract typhoid annually, with around 1.10 lakh deaths worldwide. Children and adolescents bear the brunt of this infection on a larger scale in these regions.