For most people visiting Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro there are zero absolutely required vaccinations to enter the country.
Most travellers will NOT need a Yellow Fever certificate.
There are, however, several recommendations that are very, very sensible if you value your health!
Which vaccinations you opt for and how you approach malaria prophylaxis depends on the regions you want to visit:
Will you only climb Kilimanjaro and fly straight back home again?
In that case you may get away with no vaccinations or malaria prophylaxis at all. I am not saying this is a good idea! I am saying you may be lucky enough to get away with it.
Do you plan on a safari before and a Zanzibar beach holiday after your climb?
In that case you should read the following information very carefully.
Naturally, none of the information below should be regarded as medical advice. Talk to your doctor for that.
What you find below is the official recommendations plus in some cases my thoughts on them.
The only vaccination that may be required when entering Tanzania is a yellow fever vaccination.
If you are arriving from a country with a risk of yellow fever transmission, or you have transited for more than 12 hours through an airport of a country with risk of yellow fever transmission, then you must be vaccinated to enter Tanzania. The vaccine needs to be administered at least ten days before you arrive in Tanzania. (By the way, a yellow fever certificate is valid for life, not just 10 years as it may say on the certificate.)
Here is a PDF with a list of countries with risk of yellow fever transmission.
And here is a second source, to double check.
Apart from those circumstances, a yellow fever vaccination is not generally recommended for travellers to Tanzania.
It is officially recommended that all travellers are vaccinated against:
Most people will have received the Tdap and MMR vaccines during childhood. If they haven't, then I imagine the reasons for that will likely also make them decide against the vaccines now.
If you have not been vaccinated against these diseases and are not opposed to vaccination in general, then you should get vaccinated.
As for influenza and COVID-19: If you are someone who considers these vaccinations necessary, then you will already be vaccinated.
If you don't think they are necessary, well, your risk of contracting them while in Tanzania is no higher than at home or at other tourist destinations.
Be aware though that the time of the year that these viruses are most active in the southern hemisphere is opposite to the northern hemisphere.
An infection may not be life threatening, but it will certainly ruin your trip! So, depending on the time of your trip, you may want to consider it, even if you usually wouldn't.
Lets now look at the first three recommendations...
Typhoid is endemic in Tanzania with close to 80,000 cases per year (2019 data).
A huge proportion (close to 90%) of those infections is multi-drug resistant.
(Check this PDF for detailed numbers.)
This one is strongly recommended for people visiting smaller cities or rural areas.
Which you will likely be doing. Moshi or Zanzibar anyone?
Hepatitis A is considered a common disease in warmer countries and Tanzania is no exception.
The virus is usually contracted through contaminated food or water. You are facing a significant risk of exposure.
A Hepatitis A vaccination requires two doses, given 6-12 months apart.
That means if you have not received a full vaccination in the last 25 years (if you travel a lot you likely have) then you need to get started on this one at least half a year before your trip.
An alternative option is a single dose of immune globulin (i.e. antibodies) which can give you up to two months of protection.
Tanzania conducted an intensive vaccination campaign in 2023, following a resurgence of the virus after seven years without confirmed cases. (The "resurgence" consisted of a single case of polio in a two year old child.)
The aim of the campaign was to reach three million children. At the end of it, over four million children had been vaccinated.
No cases have been reported since. However, polio virus is likely still circulating in Tanzania and cases are being reported in neighboring countries.
Children are a lot more susceptible to polio infection than adults, but adults are a lot more likely to die from it if they do contract the disease.
Exposure happens via contaminated food or water.
Some sources recommend this one for all travellers, some only for longer stays or when visiting areas with poor sanitation.
I don't consider the risk of exposure high. But the risks if exposed sure are.
(One of my uncles contracted polio as a child. He suffered lifelong disability from it and died earlier than he otherwise would have, in early 2025. Polio is no joke.)
If you received a complete polio vaccination series as a child then a single lifetime booster dose of inactivated polio vaccine is enough. (Provided you received it no more than 12 months before your trip.)
If you have not been fully vaccinated then you need the full polio vaccination series to be fully protected.
Depending on the length of your stay and what you plan to do, you may also consider the following vaccinations:
I won't go into detail on those. If you plan a longer stay in Tanzania (3 months+), especially in rural areas, I strongly recommend you do your own research.
Tanzania is among the ten countries in the world with the highest malaria cases and deaths.
Said differently, Tanzania is a country with an exceptionally high malaria prevalence!
Malaria in Tanzania is primarily caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. (And, to a lesser extent, by three other plasmodium species: P. malariae, P. ovale, both less common, and P. vivax, which is rare).
The parasite is spread by mosquitoes.
All areas of Tanzania below 1,800 m or 5,900 ft are malaria transmission areas.
(In that way malaria is similar to the other diseases we already talked about. Once you are at altitude the exposure risk is low to negligible. It is in the warm and humid regions that you face the biggest risk.)
Several Anopheles mosquito species transmit malaria in Tanzania (An. funestus, An. gambiae and An. arabiensis).
An. funestos bites mostly indoors and late at night but An. arabiensis bites mostly outdoors. So it's not enough to sleep under an insecticide-treated mosquito net.
Malaria prevalence varies from region to region. Arusha and Kilimanjaro are regions of lower prevalence. (Not low! It's just that the others are even higher.)
If all you plan to do is climb Kilimanjaro and head straight back home again, and if you are very diligent about avoiding mosquito bites while at lower altitudes (long sleeved tops and long pants, repellent, insecticide-treated mosquito nets...) then you can get away with not taking anything for malaria prophylaxis.
The medications used to prevent malaria are not without side effects. You need to take them before, during and after your trip.
The drugs currently recommended for Tanzania are:
Atovaquone-proguanil, doxycycline, mefloquine and tafenoquine.
(Chloroquine is not recommended for Tanzania as in some regions the parasite is already resistant to it.)
Here is a helpful table that lists those medications and the possible reasons that you may or may not want to take each of them.
(My mother opted for mefloquine whereas I used doxcycline.)
You need to see a doctor to get a prescription anyway, so talk to him or her about your specific needs and concerns.
A doctor with a background in tropical medicine would be perfect for this.
Next: Equipment needed to climb Kilimanjaro
Overview: What it takes to climb Kilimanjaro
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