Funding

Disciplines: All

SIUE has an occupational health and safety program for faculty, staff, and students in contact with animals. Under this program, ALL SIUE faculty, staff, and students who have, or plan to have, regular contact with live vertebrate laboratory or wild animals, are required to have a current medical history, physical examination, and appropriate vaccinations/testing PRIOR to exposure to the animals. These requirements fall under the rules set in place by the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW).

A protocol will not be approved without a health history on file with our office. So, it's best to have these completed prior to submitting a new protocol or adding additional personnel to the protocol.

The health history and evaluation and vaccination history form can be found on our website here. A portion of this form must be completed and signed by your doctor or a licensed health care provider (this does include SIUE Health Services for students). This form is good for six years, so it does not have to be updated often. However, it is a requirement that a physical examination be completed, so it shouldn't be signed off without a physical examination first.

The SIUE Health Services cannot waive the $40 fee to have this evaluation completed on campus. If you’d like to add these fees into your budget, please reach out to your pre-award specialist.

Our website also provides a letter of explanation that you can take to your doctor when going in to get the health history completed. This explains and includes instructions for the health care provider completing the health history.

A common misconception with the health history form is that the vaccination declination form can be filled out and turned in, in place of the health history. This isn't accurate. A health history form must be completed regardless of vaccination status. The vaccination declination form is only used once your health care provider has conducted their assessment, recommended a vaccine based on the animals involved, etc. It's only after the health history form has been completed by a health care provided can someone formally refuse the recommended immunizations.

If you already have a health history on file with our office, please feel free to reach out and we can let you know when it will be expiring. 

For any questions, please email researchcompliance@siue.edu.