Kay Herman, Public Service Executive II
Kansas Health and Environmental Laboratories
Telephone Number: 785-368-8324

Serology Laboratory at (785) 296-1653

Rubella Immune Status

Preventing congenital Rubella infections is a public health priority. Nosocomial Rubella transmission is a major source of these infections; therefore, KHEL strongly concurs with policies currently advocated by the American Hospital Association and the U.S. Public Health Service concerning employee immunizations. The U.S. Public Health Service recommends Rubella vaccination (unless there are contraindications) for any employees who might contract Rubella from infected patients or who, if infected, might transmit Rubella to pregnant patients or to pregnant coworkers.

Rubella vaccination of a woman who is not known to be pregnant and has no history of vaccination is justifiable; however, serological testing is not warranted before or after vaccination. Accordingly, KHEL discourages routine screening of health care employees and does not offer immune status tests for such groups.

Selective Rubella IgG screening is available to Kansas residents through local public health laboratories (e.g., when there is a question of pregnancy, a recent exposure to Rubella and no record of vaccination nor a prior positive immune status assay response). KHEL uses Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to analyze single serum specimens for such screening assays, with the results reported as either a positive or negative response.

See the Manual of Health Laboratory Tests for detailed information on the available assays.