With the introduction of No Jab No Play laws in NSW and the likelihood this will spread to other states and territories it seems appropriate to consider immunisation requirements for early childhood educators.
Currently it is not compulsory for people working in early childhood environments to be vaccinated. Yet unvaccinated people stand a higher risk of being exposed to infectious diseases due to their regular contact with children and they may also pose a risk to infants who haven't been fully immunised.
The best way for child care services to protect staff and children from vaccine preventable diseases is to have a work place policy which clearly outlines service requirements relating to immunisation status and the protocols which will be followed in the case of an outbreak.
A service's immunisation policy should at a minimum:
Outline the service's vaccination requirements
Explain how vaccine refusal, medical contraindication to vaccination (medical condition which makes vaccination inadvisable) and vaccine failure will be managed
Explain how the risks to contract and labour hire workers, students, volunteers and others will be managed
Require all at risk workers to complete an immunisation record for the relevant vaccine-preventable diseases
Identify non-immune and incompletely immunised workers from the immunisation record and encourage them to be vaccinated in accordance with the immunisation policy
Provide workers with information about the relevant vaccine-preventable disease(s) and the availability of vaccination
Update each worker's immunisation record following vaccination.
According to the Queensland workplace Health and Safety Authority when a staff member refuses vaccination or is unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons the child care service should undertake a risk assessment to determine the most appropriate way to protect these workers from infection as well as the children in the service.
Control measures could include:
Adjusting work and role to limit exposure, for example only staff who have had the adult pertussis booster care for the youngest infants.
Reviewing work policies and practices to ensure safe systems of work for infection prevention and control.
Providing additional information, instruction, training and supervision and/or personal protective equipment.
In the event of an outbreak consider work exclusions or restrictions.
The National Health and Medical Research Council recommends that early childhood educators and carers and support staff should be immunised against:
pertussis—this is especially important for educators and other staff caring for the youngest children who are not fully vaccinated. Even if the adult was vaccinated in childhood, booster vaccination may be necessary because immunity to pertussis decreases over time
measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) for educators and other staff born during or since 1966 who do not have vaccination records of two doses of MMR, or do not have antibodies against rubella
varicella for educators and other staff who have not previously had varicella (a blood test is required to prove previous infection)
hepatitis A, because young children can be infectious even if they are not showing any symptoms.
The NHMRC also recommends that staff consider having annual influenza vaccinations.
If your goal as a service operator is to boost immunisation levels among your staff members then it might be worthwhile to consider sharing the cost of vaccination with them.
