India Travel Vaccines — What You Need in 2026

Recommended Vaccines

• Hepatitis A

  Allow 2 weeks before travel

• Typhoid

  Allow 2 weeks before travel

• Japanese Encephalitis

  Allow 4 weeks before travel

• Rabies

  Allow 4 weeks before travel

Routine Vaccines to Keep Up to Date

Other Health Risks

• Dengue
• Chikungunya
• Traveller's diarrhea

Travel Health Summary

India's vaccine list is one of the longest of any mainstream destination, and the risks vary enormously between a Golden Triangle tour, a Kerala beach trip and a Himalayan trek. Malaria transmission occurs in most of the country below about 2,000 metres, with the highest risk in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and the northeastern states; Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Agra carry lower but non-zero risk, and CDC generally recommends antimalarial tablets for rural and eastern travel while bite prevention alone may suffice for short urban itineraries. Dengue is endemic nationwide and surges after the monsoon from roughly August to November, and chikungunya circulates in the same areas, so repellent and screened rooms matter everywhere. Hepatitis A and typhoid are effectively standard for India, as foodborne and waterborne illness is the single most common reason travellers seek medical care and tap water is unsafe throughout; typhoid strains in South Asia are increasingly drug-resistant, which makes vaccination more valuable than usual. Rabies is a major concern: India accounts for a large share of global human rabies deaths, street dogs and temple monkeys in places like Jaipur, Varanasi and Rishikesh are a frequent bite source, and immunoglobulin can be hard to obtain, so pre-exposure vaccination is widely recommended. Japanese encephalitis vaccination is advised for extended stays or rural travel in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu during transmission season, and a yellow fever certificate is required if you are arriving from an endemic country, with strict enforcement including quarantine. Altitude affects Ladakh, Leh and Himalayan treks, where flying straight to 3,500 metres causes frequent acute mountain sickness, and air quality in Delhi during winter is a real problem for asthmatic travellers.

Related destinations

Nearby countries with a comparable vaccine and disease-risk profile to India.