Staying Healthy in Child Care - National Health and Medical ...

The need for exclusion depends upon:
• The ease with which the infection can be spread
• The ability of the infected person to follow hygiene precautions
• The severity of the disease 4
The exclusion procedure
• Identify when symptoms or a diagnosis fit a condition with an exclusion period
• Refer to the table on page 13 for the recommended minimum periods of exclusion
• Advise the parents or staff member when they may return to the centre
Recommended exclusion periods are based on the time that a person with a specific
disease or condition is likely to be infectious.
Recommended ‘Not excluded’ means there is not a significant risk of transmitting
infection to others.
The following are recommended minimum periods of exclusion based on risk of infection
but a child or staff member may need to stay at home longer than the exclusion period to
recover from an illness.
Recommended minimum exclusion periods for
infectious conditions for school, pre-schools and child
care centres
Children who are physically unwell should stay home from school,
pre-school and child care centres.
Definition of ‘Contacts’ will vary according to disease. Please refer to specific Fact Sheet
for definition of ‘Contacts’. (Fact sheets are listed in the contents pages of the manual).
Different exclusion periods will apply to people whose work involves food handling: if
they have vomiting and/or diarrhoea they should not return to work until they have been
symptom-free for 48 hours and do not have loose bowel actions 5 . For some conditions
such as Campylobacter and Giardia, even though the organism may still found in the
bowel actions, children may be able to return to the child care centre 24 hours after the
diarrhoea has ceased. This is because the number of organisms will be less and it will be
possible for good hygiene to be effectively maintained.
Condition Exclusion of Case Exclusion of Contacts
Amoebiasis
Exclude until there has not Not excluded
(Entamoeba histolytica) been a loose bowel motion
13
Draft for Public Consultation