Vaccines for Health Care Workers

People who work in healthcare settings are at risk of exposure to serious and sometimes deadly diseases. If you work with patients or handle materials that could spread infections, you should receive vaccines, including yearly flu shots, to reduce the chance that you will get or spread preventable diseases.

Recommendations for Immunizations

The Snohomish County Health Department follows the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Recommendations for Adult Immunization. The recommendations may also apply to nursing students and others entering a health care field training program, as well as to lab technicians, pharmacists, and hospital volunteers.

Proof of protection to the following diseases is provided by documentation of receiving vaccine(s) or proof of immunity by the presence of specific antibodies found in the blood.

Risk

Diseases for which vaccines are recommended, dependent on occupational risk:

• COVID-19 vaccine
• Chickenpox vaccine (varicella)
• Flu vaccine
• Hepatitis B vaccine
• Meningococcal vaccine – especially lab workers who work with Neisseria Meningitidis
• MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella)
• Diphtheria (Tdap or Td)

Health care and education institutions may require a tuberculosis screening to diagnose Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. For more information about the tuberculosis program, please visit our tuberculosis page.

• QuantiFERON-TB Gold Test (QFT-G), a blood test--This test is not offered at the Health Department. Please check with your employer.
• Tuberculosis Skin Testing (TST) also known as PPD
• The Snohomish County Health Department does not provide testing for tuberculosis for the general public.