Bill Requires Measles Immunity

A bill likely to become law will require students to provide proof of measles immunization within ten days of matriculating at Massachusetts colleges.

The College Immunization. Bill, drawn up largely in response to the measles outbreak at Boston University and other area schools, has passed in Massachusetts House and may go to the Senate as early as next week legislators said this week.

The legislation, now under final scrutiny by a House committee, includes proposals by Harvard and other institutions to delay the applicability until the fal of 1986 and shift the group of students affected from all admitted to those registering.

The University did not come out for or against the first version of the bill, but officials yesterday said the present write-up was acceptable.

About 400 Harvard students yearly might need immunization, predicted Director of University Health Services Warren E.C. Wacker.

Cost to Harvard from the law would be minimal, because the state would probably provide the vaccine free of charge, Wacker said. The University currently offers free immunizations, he added.