Two vaccinations come up repeatedly when Indians travel to Africa: yellow fever, which is mostly about getting back into India, and polio, which applies to a short list of destinations. Both have to be given at a centre the government has authorised, and both produce a certificate that can be rejected at a border if anything about it is wrong.
This page points at the registers the Ministry of Health actually maintains, rather than reproducing addresses that go out of date. Checked 3 August 2026.
Start here: the official register
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare maintains a live list of every authorised yellow fever vaccination centre in India — currently 74 of them across 22 states and union territories, each with an address, registration procedure, vaccination days and timings, and a contact number.
Since June 2024, those same centres are also designated centres for polio vaccination, which makes this one list the answer to both questions.
Yellow fever, in short
Bring your original passport. The certificate becomes valid on the tenth day after vaccination, and it is valid for the rest of your life — no booster is needed, and no country may demand one.
Carry the original certificate when you travel. India treats a photocopy, a scan or a phone photograph as invalid, and that alone is grounds for quarantine on arrival. Before leaving the centre, check the stamp, the signature, the vaccine batch number and your own details, because an error in any of them has the same effect as having no certificate at all.
Fuller detail, including which African countries actually require it: yellow fever requirements for Indian travellers.
Polio, in short
Required for travel to eleven countries, of which Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo are safari destinations. Either OPV or IPV is accepted, it must be given at least four weeks before departure, it is free of charge, and the certificate is valid for one year.
Fuller detail: polio vaccination requirements from India.
City by city
Delhi
Six authorised yellow fever centres are listed on the national register. The Airport Health Organisation at Delhi also provides both yellow fever and polio vaccination to international passengers on request, and the Delhi state health department publishes its own list of around thirty polio vaccination centres by district, updated in 2025 — the only current state-level polio list we have been able to find anywhere in India.
Mumbai
Eleven authorised centres across Maharashtra, including the Airport Health Organisation and the Port Health Organisation, J.J. Hospital, KEM, Cooper Hospital and the centre at Khetwadi. The Airport Health Organisation publishes a standing schedule for polio vaccination on weekday mornings and afternoons, closed at weekends and on public holidays.
Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad
All four are covered on the national register — Karnataka has three centres, Tamil Nadu three including the King Institute at Guindy and the Port Health Organisation, West Bengal five, and Telangana two. Their airport health offices do not all advertise polio vaccination, so for polio it is worth going through the register or your District Immunisation Officer.
Everywhere else
We will be straight with you: outside Delhi, no reliable current state-by-state list of polio vaccination centres is published. We checked Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and nothing current is available. The dependable route is the national register of authorised centres, or a phone call to your District Immunisation Officer, who is the officer designated to issue the polio certificate.
Avoid unauthorised centres
The Ministry of Health has issued formal warnings about centres that are not authorised issuing yellow fever certificates which are then invalid at the border, and has reminded authorised centres that the vaccine may only be given on their own premises. If a clinic is not on the national register, the certificate it gives you may not get you through immigration. Check the register first.
Which of our destinations need what
Yellow fever certificate needed to enter, on a direct flight from India: Uganda and Gabon only.
Yellow fever certificate needed to re-enter India afterwards: Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Chad and Gabon.
Yellow fever certificate needed because of your connection: any itinerary with a long layover in Nairobi, Addis Ababa or Entebbe, and most multi-country safaris that begin in Kenya, Uganda or Ethiopia.
Polio certificate needed: Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Neither, flown direct: Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Rwanda.
Planning the trip these vaccinations are for?
We have been designing African safaris for Indian travellers for fifteen years, and routing is part of that conversation — whether you need a yellow fever certificate often depends on where you change planes rather than where you are going. We cannot arrange vaccinations for you, but we can tell you exactly what your itinerary will require and plan around it.
Health requirements checked 3 August 2026 against WHO and India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. These change without notice, so please confirm through the official links above before you travel. We are safari specialists, not medical advisers.
Travel vaccinations in India: common questions
Is my yellow fever certificate still valid if it is over ten years old?
Yes. Under the International Health Regulations the certificate has been valid for the life of the person vaccinated since 11 July 2016, and that applies retrospectively to certificates issued before that date. No country may require a booster as a condition of entry, and India’s own Ministry of Health states the validity correctly as lifelong. The certificate becomes valid on the tenth day after vaccination. Carry the original card — a photocopy, a scan or a photo on your phone is not accepted.
Which of your destinations need a yellow fever certificate on return to India?
India’s list is derived from the World Health Organization’s, and of our African destinations it covers Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Gabon and Chad. It does not cover Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique or Madagascar. So a Tanzania or South Africa safari carries no certificate requirement on return — unless your routing takes you landside through Nairobi, Entebbe or Addis Ababa, which most India-origin itineraries do. India’s transit rule turns on whether you left the transit area, not on a number of hours.
What happens if I return to India without a valid certificate?
You can be quarantined until the certificate becomes valid, or for up to six days reckoned from your last possible exposure, whichever comes first. A medical exemption does not exempt you from the quarantine. This is the reason we raise the yellow fever question at the itinerary stage rather than at the ticketing stage — a single landside connection in Nairobi can change what you need.
Which destinations need a polio vaccination from India, and how far ahead?
India’s advisory of June 2024 covers two endemic countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, plus a second category of countries recently endemic or with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus: Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Cameroon, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Congo and DR Congo. Three of those are safari destinations — Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar. Travellers departing India for any of the eleven need a dose of OPV or IPV at least four weeks before departure, regardless of age or prior vaccination status, and the certificate is valid for one year. The four weeks is the operational point: it belongs in the booking timeline.
Do Kenya and Ethiopia still require polio vaccination from Indian travellers?
No, and this correction matters because the old guidance circulated for a decade. Kenya and Ethiopia were on India’s 2014 list and have since come off it. The current advisory, issued 10 June 2024, superseded the earlier April/May 2024 version specifically to accept IPV as well as OPV, because OPV was unavailable in some countries. Neither Kenya nor Ethiopia appears on the current list.
Where do I get vaccinated, and what does it cost?
The Ministry of Health publishes the current register of authorised yellow fever centres, and every authorised yellow fever centre is also a designated OPV and IPV centre — so both can be done in one visit. Polio vaccination and certification are free of charge. Use the official register rather than a search result: unauthorised centres issue certificates that are not accepted. We do not administer or arrange vaccinations; what we can do is tell you, early enough to act on it, exactly which ones your itinerary will require.