|
Maine law requires that students present documentation of immunization for school entry or provide necessary waivers. Since the adoption of the HIPPA Privacy Rule, there has been confusion regarding whether health care providers could release student immunization records to schools without parental authorization.
Maine law authorizes health care practitioners to share or disclose a child’s vaccination status information with schools without the necessity of prior parental authorization. Specifically, 22 M.S.R.A §1711-C(6)(M) authorizes a health care practitioner to disclose information regarding the immunization of an individual to a school, educational institution, camp, correctional facility, or other health care practitioner without the necessity of an authorization from the person’s parent or legal guardian.
Consistent with the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which allows health care providers to disclose protected health information about their patients with school nurses for treatment purposes, even in the absence of parental authorization, Maine law allows health care practitioners to share a child patient’s vaccine status information with school officials. In receiving a child’s vaccination status information from a health care provider, school nurses must be careful not to disclose any child health information in their education records without parental consent.
 The Vaccine Storage Labels for routinely recommended vaccines are now live on the CDC website. These include new vaccines such as Mpox and RSV. The labels have been updated and reformatted to be consistent with the COVID-19 vaccine labels.
These labels can also be found on the CDC Vaccine Storage and Handling Toolkit page along with other storage and handling resources: Vaccines Storage and Handling Toolkit | CDC.
As a reminder, please check any lots of Spikevax vaccine that you have in your inventory, as certain lots may soon be expiring on March 31, 2024. We have not heard that there will be an expiration extension at this time.
When you have wasted, spoiled or expired COVID vaccines (including vaccines that were pulled out of ultra cold storage and have hit the 10-week expiration), we ask that you contact us by either email ImmPact.Support@maine.gov or call ImmPact's help desk at 207-287-3006.
When you contact the help desk, please provide the following:
- Lot number(s)
- Quantity to be returned
If any vials or open/seal is broken, please specify which lot and how many
Once we have received this information, we will manually remove the COVID doses from your inventory which will then populate to your manage returns to be returned.
Any open vials will need to be disposed of on site
|
MIP is pleased to host an educational lunch and learn on Thursday, March 14, 2024 @ 12:00 PM. During this webinar we will review how to generate several useful reports within ImmPact. Interested in improving your patient population immunization rates? Please join us for this opportunity.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 864 0091 2356
Passcode: 10817265 |
Measles activity in the United States is at the highest it has been since 2019. As of February 29, 2024, a total of 41 cases were reported by 16 U.S. jurisdictions (Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York City, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington). Of the 41 cases, most were among children and adolescents who had not received a measles-containing vaccine (measles-mumps-rubella [MMR] or measles-mumps-rubella-varicella [MMRV]), even if age-eligible.
The best protection against measles is vaccination. The MMR vaccine provides long-lasting protection. We encourage providers to pull reports using their EMR or ImmPact's IIS to review patient's immunization history and ensure that patients are adequately immunized. Please consider reaching out to patients using your reminder/recall system to have patients scheduled to receive any overdue measles vaccination.
Recommendations:
Children should receive two doses of MMR or MMRV.
- The first dose should be given at 12 through 15 months of age and the second dose should be given at 4 through 6 years of age.
Adults should have acceptable proof of immunity to measles. Acceptable evidence of immunity against measles includes at least one of the following:
- written documentation of adequate vaccination,
- laboratory evidence of immunity,
- laboratory confirmation of measles, or
- birth before 1957.
For adults with no evidence of immunity to measles, 1 dose of MMR vaccine is recommended, unless the adult is in a high-risk group (e.g., international travelers, and college students), in which case 2 doses of MMR vaccine are recommended. People who are pregnant are advised not to receive any live vaccines during pregnancy, including MMR.
On March 1, 2024, the CDC released updated recommendations for protection against respiratory viruses for individuals and their communities. This new guidance brings a unified approach to addressing risks with COVID-19, flu, and RSV.
As part of the new guidance, CDC provided preventative steps and strategies:
-
Staying up to date with vaccination to protect people against serious illness, hospitalization, and death. This includes flu, COVID-19, and RSV if eligible.
-
Practicing good hygiene by covering coughs and sneezes, washing, or sanitizing hands often, and cleaning frequently touched surfaces.
-
Taking steps for cleaner air, such as bringing in more fresh outside air, purifying indoor air, or gathering outdoors.
The updated guidance recommends that when people get sick with a respiratory virus, they stay home and away from others. It is recommended that individuals can return to normal activities when symptoms improve and they have been fever-free for 24 hours without use of a fever-reducing medication.
Once people resume normal activities, they are encouraged to take precautions for the next 5 days to reduce the spread of disease, such as limiting close contact with others, improving ventilation and masking. Those 65 years and older, and people with weakened immune systems are at most risk.
The updated guidance includes additional recommendations for people who are at higher risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses, including people who are immunocompromised, people with disabilities, people who are or were recently pregnant, young children, and older adults.
For more resources, please visit:
|
