I would suggest performing urine pregnancy testing prior to giving a child bearing female a live vaccine.

Rachel Leibu, MD, MBA, MS, FACOEM

Medical Director Occupational Medicine Services

Atlantic Health System

Clinical Assistant Professor, Sidney Kimmel Medical College

at Thomas Jefferson University

Office 973-829-4277

Cell 973-886-6708

From: MCOH-EH <mcoh-eh-bounces@mylist.net> On Behalf Of Jakub Furmaga via MCOH-EH
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2023 9:49 AM
To: mcoh-eh@mylist.net
Cc: Jakub Furmaga <jfurmaga@me.com>
Subject: [MCOH-EH] Pregnancy and Live Vaccines

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Good morning, 

I wanted to ask how everyone else is handling pregnancy testing before administering live vaccines (MMR and Varicella) to employees. Some have been accepting "I am not pregnant and not planning on becoming pregnant" as sufficient to clear them for receipt of the live vaccines. However is that sufficient? Many clinics/emergency departments perform urine pregnancy testing on all females of childbearing age before doing anything that could have negative repercussions on the fetus. Should we do the same when giving the live vaccines? 

Jakub

Jakub Furmaga, MD

Medical Director of Occupational Health

UT Southwestern, Dallas