Increasing international travel to areas endemic for typhoid fever correlates with increased risk for travellers to contract the disease. At home, the acutely ill/convalescent patients may pose some risk to their close contacts. In Finland an unofficial guideline suggests vaccination for close contacts of patients with acute typhoid fever; in other developed countries, routine typhoid vaccinations are only recommended to contacts of chronic carriers. This paper discusses the possibilities and limitations of prophylactic/post-exposure typhoid vaccination for contacts of patients with acute disease.