
The short answer is six to eight weeks. The useful answer depends on where you are going and what you need.
Typhoid, hepatitis A, yellow fever and meningitis ACWY are one dose. Two weeks before travel is enough for protection to develop. Yellow fever certificates become valid ten days after the dose, which is a hard deadline where a country demands one at the border.
Rabies is three doses over 21 to 28 days. Japanese encephalitis is two doses 28 days apart. Hepatitis B in the standard schedule takes months, though accelerated courses exist. If either is on your list, six weeks is the minimum and eight is comfortable.
Not a vaccine. Tablets started before you travel, continued throughout, and — the part people get wrong — continued after you come home. Which tablet depends on the country, the resistance pattern and your own health.
Come anyway. Something is almost always better than nothing, accelerated schedules exist for several vaccines, and knowing which risks you are not covered for changes how you behave on the trip.
Your itinerary including stopovers, any vaccination records you have, and a list of your medicines. Stopovers matter — a few hours in the wrong airport can change a yellow fever certificate requirement.
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