Timeline: Children Returning to School after Mumps Vaccine

INFORMATIONAL LETTER: 62
POLICY CODE: JCLB

DATE: December 17, 2007

TO: Superintendents of Schools, Private Schools
Special Purpose Private Schools, School Nurses

FROM: Commissioner Susan A. Gendron, Department of Education

RE: Timeline: Children Returning to School after Mumps Vaccine

In an effort to clarify the question raised about a timeline for students to return to school after receiving vaccination against mumps, the following points are provided by Jiancheng Huang, Director of the Maine Immunization Program:

1. Our eventual goal is to promote vaccination and to have as many students vaccinated as possible before an outbreak of disease occurs in schools.

2. If there is no disease activity in a specific school, students should be allowed to return to school immediately after receiving the MMR vaccine.

3. If there is mumps activity identified in a school, students who have never been vaccinated with MMR must be excluded for 18 days after the last case of mumps was diagnosed in the school. For students updating their MMR with a second shot, the 18-day rule shall not be applied because they are already primed from their first shot.

This timeline is specific to mumps. Other childhood diseases have different timelines depending on the length of time the disease is most contagious.

If you have any questions about this clarification, please contact Nancy Dube, School Nurse Consultant, Department of Education at 624-6688 or email at mailto:nancy.dube@maine.gov or Kathleen Mahaleris, Comprehensive Health Planner I, Maine Centers for Disease Control at 287-9923 or email at mailto:kathleen.mahaleris@maine.gov .