Immunizations
Indonesia is not a soft posting, and the vaccination advice written for a fortnight's holiday does not serve someone who intends to live here. Long-stay foreign residents face risks a tourist can largely sidestep: hepatitis B, rabies and Japanese encephalitis all weigh far more heavily once you are staying for years rather than days. What follows is orientation, not a prescription. Book a travel-health clinic, or your own doctor, several weeks ahead, because most vaccines take about two weeks to work and several need a multi-dose course.
| Vaccine | For residents | Current guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Hepatitis A | Recommended for all who are not already immune (age one and over). | Two doses, six to twelve months apart; one dose already protects you before departure. The old immune-globulin routine is no longer standard practice. |
| Hepatitis B | Recommended for all unvaccinated residents. | Highly endemic here, and it matters more the longer you stay. Three doses at 0, 1 and 6 months; a faster two-dose adult vaccine (Heplisav-B) now exists, and the combined A-plus-B vaccine Twinrix has been available in Indonesia since around 2005. |
| Typhoid | Sensible for most, particularly outside the main cities. | Oral Vivotif (four capsules on alternate days, about five years' cover) or a single Typhim Vi injection (about two years). Neither is fully protective, and neither excuses careless eating and drinking. |
| Measles, mumps & rubella (MMR) | Two documented doses, or proof of immunity, for everyone. | Not a footnote. Indonesia saw a serious measles resurgence in 2026, with more than 8,000 suspected cases across eleven provinces and adult deaths. Anyone unsure of their status should get MMR. |
| Tetanus, diphtheria & pertussis (Tdap/Td) | Keep current. | A one-off Tdap, then a booster every ten years. |
| Polio | Ensure your childhood course is complete and boosted. | A vaccine-derived outbreak (2022 to 2024) was declared closed by the WHO in November 2025. Stay up to date, with a one-time adult booster advised. |
| Japanese encephalitis | Worth taking for stays of a month or more, and for anyone with regular rural or outdoor exposure. | The mouse-brain JE-VAX is long gone. The current vaccine, Ixiaro, is two doses 28 days apart (adults 18 to 65 may take the second as early as day 7), the last a week before travel, boosted after a year if risk continues. |
| Dengue & chikungunya | Worth discussing for longer stays. | Both are rising mosquito-borne risks. A dengue vaccine is now available locally for ages 6 to 45 by risk; the CDC lists chikungunya as one to consider for stays of six months or more. |
| Cholera | Not needed for ordinary residence. | Only for those heading into an active outbreak or relief zone. The current oral option is Vaxchora; the old Orochol/Mutacol is discontinued. |
Rabies: the risk residents most often underestimate
Rabies is no longer a distant, high-risk-groups-only concern, and the old anecdote about a single Flores outbreak in 2000 badly understates it. Rabies is now endemic in 26 of Indonesia's 38 provinces; only eleven are free of it. It has been entrenched in Bali since a dog-borne outbreak in 2008. Indonesia recorded 122 human rabies deaths in 2024, and Bali alone logged around 49,000 animal-bite cases and twelve deaths in 2025, with declared "red zones" in tourist areas. Bali and East Nusa Tenggara carry the heaviest burden. Dogs cause roughly 90 per cent of cases; cats and monkeys can also transmit, which matters at the monkey-forest sites.
Once symptoms appear, rabies is effectively always fatal, so the case for pre-exposure vaccination is strong for anyone living here, particularly outside the eleven rabies-free provinces. The schedule is now two doses, on days 0 and 7. It does not make you immune, but it buys time and simplifies treatment after a bite.
If you are bitten, scratched or licked on broken skin by a dog, cat or monkey, wash the wound with soap and running water for a full fifteen minutes and seek anti-rabies treatment immediately, whether or not you were vaccinated beforehand. Do not wait to see how it heals. People who delay, die. A full post-exposure course runs to roughly Rp650,000 to Rp700,000.
Entry requirements and yellow fever
As a general rule Indonesia requires no vaccination certificate to enter on a visit permit or visa-on-arrival. The one exception is yellow fever, which does not occur here: proof is demanded only from travellers aged nine months and over arriving from, or transiting more than twelve hours through, a country where yellow fever circulates. That proof is the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP), and a single dose is now regarded as valid for life. The COVID-era vaccine-card rules no longer apply.
This page is orientation, not individual medical advice. Your age, health, length of stay and exactly where in the archipelago you settle all change the calculation. Sit down with a travel-health clinic or your doctor well before you travel, take a record of any vaccinations you already hold, and check current CDC or WHO guidance for the latest position.
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