DPH BCD Memo 2025-04: Health Care Personnel Exclusion and Return to Work Following an Acute Respiratory Illness

Wisconsin Department of Health Services sent this bulletin at 11/13/2025 01:26 PM CST
Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Bureau of Communicable Diseases Information Update

Health Care Personnel Exclusion and Return to Work Following an Acute Respiratory Illness

This message is being sent to local public health officers, Tribal health directors, local public health department staff and nurses, infection preventionists, and subscribers to the Health Alert Network, BCD: Information Update, and DQA: Notifications and Updates list. 

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has issued DPH Numbered Memo BCD 2025-04. This memo provides guidance to prevent health care-associated transmission of respiratory viral infections by defining when health care personnel (HCP) should be excluded from work and when they may safely return.

This guidance applies to common and seasonal respiratory viruses that circulate in Wisconsin each year such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), parainfluenza, rhinovirus/enterovirus, and SARS-CoV-2. 

Please distribute this memo widely. 

All of our memos can be found on the DPH Communicable Diseases Memos webpage.