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Adult & Travel Vaccine Evidence Summary

Typhoid Vaccine Side Effects (Travel Vaccine — Pharmacovigilance Summaries)

This page answers “typhoid vaccine side effects” with sourced pharmacovigilance data — VAERS and VigiAccess reaction-term categories. Counts are database reports, not proven vaccine-caused injury rates.

Look up a vaccine lot or batch number in VAERS →

Last updated: July 2026  ·  Status: Current U.S. licensed products reviewed

ⓘ Methodology Note

This page summarizes published clinical trial data, post-licensure surveillance findings, and peer-reviewed literature for typhoid vaccines: the injectable Vi capsular polysaccharide vaccine (ViCPS/Typhim Vi), the oral live-attenuated Ty21a vaccine (Vivotif), and the newer typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV, e.g. Typbar-TCV), the latter used mainly in endemic-country immunization programs rather than in the U.S.

1. Basic Information

Disease Overview

Vaccine Options

VaccineTypeScheduleBooster
ViCPS (Typhim Vi)Injectable Vi capsular polysaccharideSingle IM dose, ≥2 years oldEvery 2 years if continued exposure
Ty21a (Vivotif)Oral live-attenuated4 capsules over 1 week, ≥6 years oldEvery 5 years
TCV (e.g. Typbar-TCV)Vi polysaccharide conjugated to protein carrierSingle IM dose, usable from 6 months of age; used in endemic-country programs (e.g. Pakistan EPI, Gavi-supported campaigns)Not yet established; not licensed for routine use in the U.S.

Source: CDC Yellow Book; WHO Typhoid position paper (2018).

Recommended For

Ingredients (Package Insert)

Structured composition for 2 branded products covered on this page, taken from FDA-approved package inserts (DailyMed / manufacturer prescribing information). Lists are per product — formulations differ by manufacturer and presentation. Click an ingredient name to open its safety-context page when available.

Live attenuated Subunit Intramuscular (IM) Oral No preservative (typical single-dose) Preservative: Phenol
Vivotif Bavarian Nordic / Emergent · Live attenuated

Delivery

Route: Oral

Form: Enteric-coated capsule

Dose volume: 1 capsule × 4 doses (days 1, 3, 5, 7)

Presentation: blister of 4 capsules

Encapsulation / delivery vehicle

None (no nanoparticle/VLP encapsulation system) — Enteric-coated capsule for gastric acid protection (not a nanoparticle system).

Antigens

AntigenTypeAmount / dose
Salmonella typhi Ty21a (live attenuated)Live attenuated bacteria2–10 × 10^9 CFU viable organisms per capsule

Adjuvants

None listed on the package insert for this product (common for live attenuated and some inactivated whole-virus vaccines).

Preservatives

  • None — Single-dose presentation; label states no preservative.

Excipients & residuals

IngredientCategoryAmountRole
SucroseStabilizerlabel quantitystabilizer
Ascorbic acidStabilizerlabel quantityantioxidant
Amino acidsStabilizerlabel quantitystabilizer
Lactose / magnesium stearate / capsule shellOtherlabel quantitycapsule formulation

Source: FDA package insert · Verified 2026-07-09

Typhim Vi Sanofi Pasteur · Subunit

Delivery

Route: Intramuscular (IM)

Form: Solution for injection

Dose volume: 0.5 mL

Presentation: single-dose syringe

Encapsulation / delivery vehicle

None (no nanoparticle/VLP encapsulation system)

Antigens

AntigenTypeAmount / dose
Salmonella typhi Vi capsular polysaccharidePolysaccharide25 mcg

Adjuvants

None listed on the package insert for this product (common for live attenuated and some inactivated whole-virus vaccines).

Preservatives

  • Phenol — ≤1.25 mg
    Phenol used as preservative in Typhim Vi.

Excipients & residuals

IngredientCategoryAmountRole
Sodium chlorideBufferlabel quantitytonicity
Sodium phosphate bufferBufferlabel quantitybuffer
Water for injectionDiluentq.s.vehicle

Source: FDA package insert · Verified 2026-07-09

ⓘ How to read this section

Ingredient lists are sourced from official package inserts for the specific brands named above. Formulations can change between lots and over time — verify against the current label before any clinical decision. Presence of a substance does not by itself indicate harm; toxicology is dose-, route-, and context-dependent. Browse the full ingredient database: Vaccine Ingredients index.

Causality assessment & potential mechanisms

Conditions below combine WHO-style causality levels with potential biological mechanisms from the site mechanism catalog (ae_mechanisms_catalog.json). HRSA VICP table listing (where shown) indicates a compensable temporal association under U.S. program rules — not automatic proof of causation for every case. Mechanisms are hypothesis-level pathways with graded evidence.

Condition Time window Causality Potential mechanism(s)
Anaphylaxis (injectable) 0–1 days Possible

Evidence: Moderate

IgE-mediated hypersensitivity (anaphylaxis) (primary · hypersensitivity)

Pre-existing or newly formed IgE against vaccine antigens or excipients (e.g., gelatin, egg proteins, PEG, polysorbate) triggers mast-cell and basophil degranulation with systemic mediator release.

GI reactogenicity (oral live Ty21a) 0–3 days Very likely / Probable

Evidence: High

Uncontrolled live attenuated vaccine replication (contributing · live_replication)

In immunocompromised or otherwise susceptible hosts, live attenuated vaccine strains can replicate beyond the intended limited infection, causing disseminated disease or organ-specific infection.

Adjuvant-driven local and systemic reactogenicity (primary · innate_inflammation)

Aluminum or other adjuvants (e.g., AS01B) amplify innate immune signaling, producing injection-site inflammation and transient systemic symptoms (fever, myalgia, fatigue).

SIRVA (injectable) 0–2 days Very likely / Probable

Evidence: High

SIRVA — incorrect injection into shoulder structures (primary · procedural)

Needle placement into the subdeltoid/subacromial bursa or joint rather than deltoid muscle causes prolonged local inflammation and restricted range of motion (procedural, not antigen-specific).

Framework: WHO causality + HRSA VICP (where applicable) + AE mechanism catalog. Last updated: 2026-07-18. Schema: schemas/vaccine_injury_table.schema.json · Mechanisms: schemas/ae_mechanism.schema.json. Not medical or legal advice.

2. Pre-Licensure Clinical Trial Data

Licensure trial design (ICAN / OpenVAERS)

This vaccine is not listed in ICAN’s childhood-schedule No Placebo Table (which covers CDC routine pediatric injectable products). Pre-licensure trial comparators for travel, adult, or specialty vaccines should be taken from FDA review documents and product labels in the sections below.

Source: OpenVAERS — No Placebo Table · ICAN original PDF · Attribution: Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) via OpenVAERS · Last fetched: 2026-07-16. For many trials listing '6 months' safety review, ICAN notes review was typically ~30 days post-injection with a phone call at 6 months.

Efficacy has been evaluated in large field trials conducted primarily in endemic settings (Nepal, Bangladesh, South Africa) rather than U.S. pre-licensure trials.

VaccineEfficacy DataEvidence Strength
ViCPS~50–80% efficacy over 2–3 years across field trials (Nepal, South Africa)Moderate
Ty21a~50–80% efficacy with full 4-dose oral course over multiple years, though real-world adherence to the full oral course is a limiting factorModerate
TCV (Typbar-TCV)~79–85% efficacy in a randomized controlled human challenge trial and in a large cluster-randomized field trial in Nepal; longer duration and usable in infants, an advantage over older vaccinesStrong

Key Limitations

3. Post-Licensure Safety Data

Post-Licensure Safety Monitoring

Both older vaccines have decades of post-marketing use. TCV has been monitored through Gavi-supported introduction campaigns and WHO-coordinated pharmacovigilance in Pakistan, Nepal, Zimbabwe, and Liberia.

VaccineKey Post-Licensure Finding
ViCPSNo unusual safety signals identified over decades of use; injection site and mild systemic reactions are the dominant reported events
Ty21aWell tolerated; GI symptoms are the main reported events; rare reports of urticaria/rash
TCVLarge-scale campaign pharmacovigilance in Pakistan (>10 million doses) and Nepal field trial found no unexpected serious adverse event signal

⚠ Critical Caveat

No typhoid vaccine is 100% effective and none protects against paratyphoid fever (caused by Salmonella Paratyphi); safe food and water practices remain necessary for travelers even after vaccination.

Passive Surveillance: AE Type Breakdown (Multi-System)

Side-by-side view of U.S. VAERS, Health Canada Canada Vigilance, Japan JADER (PMDA), EU EudraVigilance, and live-scraped international systems via SurVigilance (VigiAccess, Lareb, DAEN, DMA, Medsafe). SurVigilance panels show MedDRA PT mention totals (not individual-case counts). Category assignment uses keyword matching — approximate, not official SOC coding. VAERS ZIP CAPTCHA downloads use this site’s vaers_pipeline.py; FAERS is bulk quarterly ZIP via SurVigilance (not product search).

VAERS (United States)

Canada Vigilance (Canada)

JADER (PMDA, Japan)

No matching vaccine reports in the current JADER public extract.

EudraVigilance (EU)

3,383
individual cases · adrreports.eu DAP export (up to 28/06/2026)
Reaction SOC breakdown not included in this workbook export.

SurVigilance: VigiAccess · Lareb · DAEN · DMA · Medsafe

VigiAccess (WHO)

Lareb (Netherlands)

DAEN (Australia)

No DAEN (Australia) data yet — run python scrape_survigilance_one.py daen <vaccine-id> or python survigilance_pipeline.py --system daen (SurVigilance + direct scrapers: GitHub).

DMA (Denmark)

Denmark DMA interactive ADR search is currently offline (Danish Medicines Agency IT transition; public overviews frozen at 12 Mar 2024). Live product PT tables cannot be retrieved until DKMA restores the search. See DKMA notice. Denmark continues to report into EU EudraVigilance (panel above).

Medsafe (New Zealand)

VAERS (U.S., 2006–2024): 7,761 symptom mentions (rate N/A — no U.S. dose denominator for this vaccine). Largest share: Other / Unclassified (24%), Gastrointestinal (20%), General / Systemic (non-local) (15%). Canada Vigilance (CV Online extract): 825 reaction mentions in 231 unique reports (32.9% serious (76 of 231 reports)). Largest share: General / Systemic (non-local) (25%), Gastrointestinal (15%), Neurological (13%). EudraVigilance (EU DAP export): 3,383 individual cases (up to 28/06/2026). Reaction SOC categories were not exported in the local DAP workbooks — case count only. VigiAccess (WHO): 55,206 reaction-term mentions · search: typhoid. Largest share: General / Systemic (non-local) (21%), Gastrointestinal (14%), Neurological (14%). Lareb (Netherlands): 604 reaction-term mentions · search: Typhoid vaccine. Largest share: General / Systemic (non-local) (23%), Neurological (17%), Gastrointestinal (15%). Medsafe (New Zealand): 360 reaction-term mentions · search: typhoid. Largest share: Gastrointestinal (23%), General / Systemic (non-local) (21%), Musculoskeletal (20%). Cross-database note: All systems are passive and unverified; reporting rates are not directly comparable across countries (different populations, reporting incentives, and lack of dose denominators for Canada/Japan/EU). top VAERS: Other / Unclassified; top Canada Vigilance: General / Systemic (non-local). SurVigilance note: VigiAccess, Lareb, DAEN, DMA, and Medsafe counts are live-scraped MedDRA PT mention totals (not deduplicated individual cases). Data via SurVigilance (GPL-3.0; pip install SurVigilance). Category assignment uses keyword matching on reported reaction terms — approximate and exploratory. Neither database establishes causality.

Compare AE patterns across all vaccines →

4. Documented Adverse Events — Evidence of Association

Rank-aggregated VAERS signal detection (rankv)

The table below lists vaccine–event pairs that were detected as disproportionality signals by all four base methods used in rankv (GPS, PRR, ROR, BCPNN) on multi-decade VAERS data, then ordered by rank aggregation (Borda average rank; related to the Spearman/GA top-list approach in the rankv paper).

Agg. rank VAERS product Preferred term (event) N Method ranks (GPS / PRR / ROR / BCPNN)
146 TYPHOID LIVE ORAL TY21A (VIVOTIF) Abdominal pain
clinical-coded PT
225 GPS rank 114 (EBGM=12.69); PRR rank 193 (PRR=16.9137); ROR rank 189 (ROR=17.569); BCPNN rank 96 (IC_LB=3.749)
150 TYPHOID LIVE ORAL TY21A (VIVOTIF) Oral administration complication
clinical-coded PT
10 GPS rank 15 (EBGM=57.04); PRR rank 145 (PRR=40.6031); ROR rank 147 (ROR=40.6728); BCPNN rank 294 (IC_LB=2.1578)
217 TYPHOID LIVE ORAL TY21A (VIVOTIF) Abdominal pain upper
clinical-coded PT
110 GPS rank 161 (EBGM=8.34); PRR rank 240 (PRR=12.7094); ROR rank 238 (ROR=12.9403); BCPNN rank 179 (IC_LB=3.2171)
272 TYPHOID LIVE ORAL TY21A (VIVOTIF) Diarrhoea
clinical-coded PT
286 GPS rank 189 (EBGM=7.06); PRR rank 284 (PRR=6.6301); ROR rank 284 (ROR=6.9281); BCPNN rank 274 (IC_LB=2.5131)

Showing up to 15 pairs for this page (clinical-coded terms listed first). Full processed tables: rankv_signals.json.

  • Methods combined: BCPNN (IC), GPS/EBGM, PRR, ROR — then rank aggregation.
  • Data: ~30 years of public VAERS (rankv processed tables).
  • Origin: precisionFDA “Gaining New Insights by Detecting Adverse Event Anomalies” challenge solution.
  • Caveat: Disproportionality signals are statistical associations in spontaneous reports. They do not establish causality, incidence, or product defect. Many top pairs reflect administration/product-use coding rather than clinical injury.

Source: nanx.me/rankv · Code: github.com/nanxstats/rankv (MIT) · Built: 2026-07-30.

▶ Strong Evidence of Causal Association

▶ Moderate or Preliminary Evidence

5. Disease Prevention Benefits

Program Impact

SettingOutcome
Pakistan TCV introduction (2019–present)Rolled out amid XDR typhoid outbreak; large-scale campaigns and routine EPI introduction associated with substantial declines in pediatric typhoid incidence in vaccinated districts
Nepal cluster-randomized trial (2018)~79% efficacy against blood-culture-confirmed typhoid over 2 years of follow-up
Traveler use (ViCPS/Ty21a)Reduces but does not eliminate risk; typhoid remains one of the most common vaccine-preventable causes of fever in travelers returning from South Asia

Source: WHO SAGE typhoid position paper (2018); Nepal TyVAC trial (Lancet, 2021 follow-up).

6. Evidence Summary

Typhoid vaccines provide moderate, time-limited protection; the newer conjugate vaccine (TCV) offers the strongest and longest-lasting efficacy data and is increasingly the preferred option in endemic-country programs. For U.S. travelers, ViCPS and Ty21a remain the standard options, each requiring periodic revaccination for continued protection. All formulations are well tolerated with adverse events limited mainly to mild, self-resolving local and systemic reactions.

DomainEvidence GradeKey Finding
ViCPS/Ty21a efficacyModerate~50–80% over 2–5 years depending on vaccine
TCV efficacyStrong~79–85%, usable in infants, longer duration
Common reactogenicityStrongMild, self-limited local/systemic reactions
Serious adverse eventsNo AssociationNo unusual safety signal identified across decades/large campaigns

7. International Surveillance & Global Data

Quick links to public pharmacovigilance databases and trial registries relevant to Typhoid Vaccine. Reporting counts do not establish causality.

8. Curated Adverse Event Literature

Curated peer-reviewed literature linking specific adverse events to Typhoid Vaccine. Each entry is a case report, case series, or related safety publication identified via PubMed. Expand Search PubMed for additional literature below to run custom queries.

9. Key References

  1. WHO. Typhoid vaccines: WHO position paper. Wkly Epidemiol Rec. 2018;93(13):153–172.
  2. CDC. Typhoid Fever & Paratyphoid Fever. CDC Yellow Book, Travelers’ Health. cdc.gov/yellowbook
  3. Meiring JE, et al. Typhoid conjugate vaccine effectiveness (TyVAC Nepal). Lancet. 2023 follow-up analyses.
  4. Shakya M, et al. Phase 3 efficacy analysis of a typhoid conjugate vaccine trial in Nepal. N Engl J Med. 2019;381:2209–2218.
  5. Gavi. Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine Support. gavi.org

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