NIBSC experts involved in Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine workshop

In November last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) delivered a workshop to bring delegates from public health organisations, industry and regulatory agencies together to discuss guidelines on Typhoid Conjugate Vaccines (TCVs). 

Typhoid fever is an infectious disease responsible for an estimated 12–20 million illnesses and over 150 000 deaths annually. This event aimed to support ongoing efforts to introduce TCVs to childhood vaccination programmes in low and middle-income countries.

With experience in the standardisation and testing of typhoid vaccines, two NIBSC scientists delivered sessions on the use of WHO international Standards and analysis of quality control data for TCVs. The standardisation sessions provided an opportunity to promote best practice for the use of NIBSC-developed WHO International standards for human anti-Vi IgG serum (16/138) and Vi polysaccharides of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi  (16/126) and Citrobacter freundii (12/244) to support vaccine development and the release of TCVs to market.

Dr Sjoerd Rijpkema, principal scientist at NIBSC said:

“TCVs offer advantages over existing typhoid vaccines as they have been recommended for use in children under 2 years of age, so there is an eagerness amongst the community to facilitate the use of these vaccines."

“The meeting provided a great opportunity for public health experts from countries that suffer from a high incidence of Typhoid to discuss the introduction of TCVs into their programmes.”