The impact of typhoid in developing communities goes beyond physical illness and death. Typhoid infections can cause adverse pregnancy outcomes, impair physical and cognitive development, impact school attendance and performance, and limit productivity in the workforce.

Access to healthcare in many typhoid-high burden communities remains limited. When care can be reached, lack of effective diagnosis often leads to inappropriate treatment and management of typhoid infections, leading to unnecessary and more severe illness and death.

Direct and indirect costs of the disease include hospital visits, disease treatment, school absenteeism and lost wages during illness. These added costs hurt both the public and private sectors and hinder economic and social development in endemic communities. 

A recent study determined that the cost per patient, on average, of a case of typhoid fever cost over US$100 per day in direct and indirect costs. In a community where the majority of families live on less than US$1 per day, typhoid can be devastating.

Another recent study considered the cost effectiveness of typhoid vaccination programs in four urban Asian settings.The researchers found that the net societal benefit per case avoided was highly positive, especially for programs targeting pre-school age children.