The Mount Pleasant Health Department has released updated guidelines for 2025 focusing on communicable disease prevention, exclusion criteria for schools and child care, and enhanced sanitation measures. These changes emphasize stricter requirements for reporting illnesses, routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces, and updated vaccination recommendations for staff and students in local schools and childcare settings.
Key Guidelines and Updates
Individuals exhibiting symptoms of communicable diseases must be excluded from schools and childcare until they meet established readmission criteria, such as being fever-free for 24 hours without medication or after completing antibiotic treatment for certain infections.
Guidelines stress universal prevention measures: frequent handwashing, disinfecting water fountains, doorknobs, tables, keyboards, and diapering areas, and routine sanitation of environments where children and the public gather.
Updated exclusion periods are provided for gastrointestinal, respiratory, and skin illnesses, including norovirus, rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, ringworm, and others.
Promotion of up-to-date immunizations is encouraged; specific vaccine-preventable diseases may trigger mandatory exclusion and immunization or extended exclusion for exposed individuals.
Reporting procedures for certain disease cases are clarified, with contacts to the regional health department required for any reportable conditions and further management recommendations supplied to care providers.
Additional resources and detailed exclusion lists are available on official South Carolina Department of Public Health portals for reference by schools, parents, and employers.
Mount Pleasant’s Health Department’s new 2025 guidance prioritizes disease prevention through exclusion protocols, sanitation practices, and vaccination encouragement, especially within community, school, and childcare environments
SOURCES
(https://www.scchildcare.org/media/nkofi4jj/school-and-childcar-exclusion-20240603.pdf)(https://dph.sc.gov/sites/scdph/files/Library/00164-ENG-CR_2025.pdf)(https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/3613.htm)(https://img1.scdhhs.gov/sites/default/files/Process%20and%20Procedure%20Manual-January%202025.pdf)(https://dph.sc.gov)
