Recommended Vaccines for Vietnam

There is no vaccine legally required to enter Vietnam from most countries — yellow fever is the only entry requirement and only if you are arriving from a country with yellow fever transmission. Everything else is risk-based.

This article summarises common advice but is not medical guidance. Speak to a travel-medicine clinic, a GP with travel-health expertise, or one of the Vietnam-side options listed below. See vaccinations for broader logistics.

Strongly recommended for almost everyone

Hepatitis A. Spread through contaminated food and water. Vietnam has high prevalence and the vaccine is highly effective. Two doses six months apart give long-term protection; one dose covers a single trip. Recommended for all travellers.

Typhoid. Also food-and-water-borne. Risk is moderate — higher for longer stays, street-food enthusiasts, and travellers going off the well-worn tourist track. Single injection or oral course gives a few years of cover. Reasonable default.

Tetanus. Make sure your routine tetanus-diphtheria booster is current (within 10 years). Vietnam has a lot of opportunity to scrape yourself on rusted metal, coral, and gravel — and good tetanus cover is much simpler than dealing with a wound abroad.

Routine vaccinations. MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), polio, varicella — make sure these are up to date as standard. Measles outbreaks happen periodically.

Recommended for many

Japanese encephalitis (JE). Mosquito-borne, rare in tourists but serious. The case for vaccination strengthens if you are staying more than a month, spending time in rural rice-growing areas (Mekong Delta, northern highlands), travelling during the wet season, or sleeping outside cities. Two-dose course over 28 days (or accelerated 7-day schedule with the IXIARO vaccine in some countries).

Rabies. Vietnam has rabies in dogs and, less commonly, in macaques and bats. The pre-exposure vaccine course (two or three doses) does not eliminate the need for post-bite shots, but it removes the need for rabies immunoglobulin — which is genuinely hard to find quickly in Vietnam outside the big private hospitals. Strongly worth considering if you will be riding a motorbike (see motorbike rental), spending time around stray animals, or staying long-term. After any animal bite or scratch, wash the wound for 15 minutes with soap and water and get to a clinic the same day.

Hepatitis B. Many people are already vaccinated. If not, consider it for long stays, medical or dental work, tattoos, or any contact with bodily fluids.

Worth discussing

Dengue (Qdenga / TAK-003). Now available privately in Vietnam. Two doses three months apart, suitable for ages 4+. Particularly worth considering for long-stay residents, anyone who has had dengue before, and frequent visitors. See dengue fever for the longer discussion.

Cholera. Risk is very low for tourists. Worth considering for aid workers or people staying in flood-affected rural areas.

Influenza. A seasonal flu shot is sensible, particularly if travelling October through March.

Not needed for most travellers

COVID-19. Vietnam has no entry requirement. There is no specific recommendation beyond keeping current with whatever your home country advises.

Yellow fever. Only if you are arriving from a yellow-fever country. Vietnam itself has no yellow fever.

Malaria prophylaxis. Not needed for standard tourist routes — HCMC, Hanoi, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, Ha Long, Sapa, Phu Quoc, the Mekong. Risk persists only in some remote forested border areas (parts of the central highlands, northwest). Discuss with a travel doctor if your itinerary takes you there.

Where to get them in Vietnam

If you arrive without vaccines, most are easily and cheaply available locally — often at a fraction of what they cost in the UK, US, or Australia.

• Pasteur Institute (Vien Pasteur). HCMC: 167 Pasteur, District 3. Hanoi: 131 Lo Duc. The reference institution for vaccinations, very busy, cheap, mostly Vietnamese-only but staff are used to foreigners and the process is straightforward. Cash payment. Bring your passport.
• VNVC is a private nationwide vaccination chain. Cleaner waiting rooms, English support, online booking, slightly more expensive than Pasteur.
• Family Medical Practice (Hanoi, HCMC, Da Nang) does the full travel-medicine consult and stocks all the vaccines listed above. Most expensive option but easiest in English.
• Vinmec at all major branches.

A typical Hep A shot at Pasteur is around 600,000 VND. At Family Medical Practice it is more like 1.8–2.5 million VND. Same vaccine.

For broader pre-departure logistics — what to bring, insurance, prescriptions — see vaccinations and travel insurance.