The research plan has been carefully designed and will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (iccdr,b) in Bangladesh and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Innlandet Hospital Trust in Norway. Over a period of 2 years, 20,745 non-pregnant women will be recruited and will receive either the hepatitis E vaccine or a hepatitis B vaccine (control group). All women who develop hepatitis E symptoms will be tested for the disease. Those who become pregnant during the study will also be checked and tested during regular home visits. Clinical outcomes and vaccine adverse events will be closely monitored.