If a child develops a rash following MMR or varicella vaccination but is otherwise well, can the child attend day care/school?
For MMR, it is not a problem because there is no risk of transmission after vaccination. With varicella it is a little more complex. You have to use clinical judgment about what you think the rash looks like. Vaccine-associated varicella rashes tend to be mild, maculopapular lesions that are essentially noncommunicable. On the other hand, if the rash looks extensive, if it is vesicular, or you think the person might in fact have breakthrough varicella disease, the child could be infectious. It is possible to get infected with wild virus varicella after vaccination before the immune system has had a chance to mount an immune response to the vaccine. The bottom line is that if it looks like chickenpox, it should be treated like chickenpox. It would also depend on the policy of the day care/school.
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