Vaccines in Nepal's Immunization Program: Every Khop, Age & Year

Nepal's National Immunization Program (NIP) is one of the country's oldest and most successful public health interventions. It began in 2034 BS (1977/78 AD) as the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in three districts and was gradually scaled up to reach every district by the late 1980s. Today it is delivered free of charge through more than 16,000 vaccination clinics and outreach sessions run by the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services (DoHS), Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP).

The program currently protects children against over a dozen vaccine-preventable diseases using roughly eleven separate antigens. Financing and technical support come from the Government of Nepal together with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF Nepal. Each vaccine (khop in Nepali) is added only after review of local disease burden, cost-effectiveness and cold-chain readiness, which is why Nepal has expanded its schedule steadily rather than all at once.

This page collects the full set of vaccines in one place: what each one is, the disease it prevents, the age at which it is given, how many doses are needed, and the year it entered the routine schedule. It also records Nepal's landmark achievements, including maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination in 2005 and the region-wide polio-free certification in 2014.

Nepal's routine schedule front-loads most vaccines into the first 15 months of life, with a single adolescent dose (HPV) added for girls around age 10. The doses below are those given at public health facilities free of cost; the exact brand and valency can change over time as the government procures new supplies.

Vaccination is recorded on the child's immunization card (khop card), which parents should keep and bring to every visit. Missed doses can usually be given as catch-up, so a delayed start does not mean a child must begin again.

BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guerin) is the first vaccine a Nepali baby receives, given as a single intradermal dose at birth to protect against severe forms of childhood tuberculosis such as TB meningitis. It is one of the original EPI antigens and has been part of the program since its beginning.

The pentavalent vaccine is the workhorse of infant immunization, given intramuscularly at 6, 10 and 14 weeks. A single shot combines five antigens covering diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). Nepal moved from separate DPT and hepatitis B shots to the combined pentavalent formulation in 2009, reducing the number of injections a baby needs.

Protection against polio is delivered with two vaccine types. Oral polio vaccine (OPV) is given at 6, 10 and 14 weeks, while inactivated polio vaccine, used in the fractional intradermal form (fIPV), is given at 14 weeks and again at 9 months. Combining oral and injectable polio vaccine follows the global polio endgame strategy and strengthens the immunity that has kept Nepal free of wild poliovirus since 2010.

The pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) was introduced in 2015 to fight pneumonia and meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, a leading killer of under-five children. Nepal became the first Gavi-supported country to adopt a 2+1 schedule, giving two primary doses at 6 and 10 weeks and a booster at 9 months rather than the more common three-dose infant series. When people ask when PCV was introduced in Nepal, the answer is 2015.

The rotavirus vaccine (rota khop) was launched into the NIP on 2 July 2020 to prevent rotavirus, the single largest cause of severe diarrhoea in young children. It is an oral vaccine given in two doses at 6 and 10 weeks. Because rotavirus diarrhoea causes a large share of infant dehydration deaths, this addition was described by WHO Nepal as a major milestone for the program.

The typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) entered routine immunization in April 2022. Nepal first ran a nationwide catch-up campaign from 8 April to 1 May 2022 that vaccinated more than seven million children aged 15 months to 15 years, then folded TCV into the routine schedule as a single injection at 15 months of age. This is the answer to the common query about typhoid vaccine age in Nepal: routine TCV is given at 15 months.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is Nepal's newest addition. A national campaign launched on 4 February 2025 (World Cancer Day) vaccinated more than 1.46 million adolescent girls, reaching about 94 percent administrative coverage. HPV protects against cervical cancer and is now given as a single dose to girls who are 10 years old or studying in grade 6, delivered each year during Falgun (mid-February to mid-March).

The Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine addresses a mosquito-borne brain infection that historically caused deadly outbreaks in Nepal's Terai (southern plains). Using the live attenuated SA 14-14-2 vaccine, Nepal began mass campaigns in high-burden districts in 2006 and started routine immunization of children aged 12-23 months from 2008-2009, expanding over time. Today JE is given as a single dose at 12 months, and no death has been attributed to the disease since its rollout dramatically cut case numbers.

The measles-rubella (MR) vaccine protects against two viral diseases in one shot, given subcutaneously at 9 and 15 months. Nepal added a rubella-containing vaccine through a nationwide campaign in 2012 and introduced the second routine dose in 2016 to close immunity gaps. Sustained high MR coverage underpinned two of Nepal's proudest recent achievements: progress toward measles elimination and the WHO South-East Asia Region's announcement in August 2025 that Nepal had eliminated rubella as a public health problem.

Both JE and MR illustrate how Nepal tailors its schedule to local epidemiology, concentrating resources where disease burden and outbreak risk are highest while maintaining nationwide routine coverage.

Decades of high vaccination coverage have produced several internationally recognised milestones. In 2005, Nepal was validated as having eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT), meaning fewer than one neonatal tetanus case per 1,000 live births in every district; WHO reconfirmed this status in 2025. This was achieved by combining Td vaccination of pregnant women with clean delivery and skilled birth attendance.

On polio, Nepal recorded its last case of wild poliovirus in August 2010 in Rautahat district, part of a cluster of importation-linked cases from India during 2005-2010. After the whole region met the certification criteria, the WHO South-East Asia Region, including Nepal, was certified polio-free on 27 March 2014. Nepal continues both OPV and IPV in the routine schedule to guard against any re-importation.

The most recent landmark is rubella: on 18 August 2025 the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office announced that Nepal had eliminated rubella as a public health problem, a direct dividend of the measles-rubella program. Together these achievements make Nepal's NIP one of the strongest immunization systems among Gavi-supported countries in the region.

All routine vaccines in the schedule are provided free of charge at government health posts, primary health care centres, district and provincial hospitals, and through regular outreach and mobile immunization clinics. Urban health centres and municipal wards typically run fixed immunization days, and private hospitals also offer the same vaccines, sometimes with additional optional shots.

Parents should begin vaccination on time (the first doses are due at 6 weeks), keep the child's khop card safe, and return for every scheduled visit up to 15 months, then again for HPV at around age 10 for girls. If a dose is missed, the child does not need to restart; health workers will provide catch-up doses according to national guidelines.

For travel, occupational exposure, or specific risks, additional vaccines beyond the national schedule (such as rabies, seasonal influenza or hepatitis A) are available privately and are not part of the free NIP. Always confirm the current schedule with a local health facility, as the government periodically updates vaccine brands, valencies and timing.