Hospital visiting guidelines updated 20 July 2022: Hospital visitors must wear a surgical/medical paper mask. Fabric face coverings are no longer acceptable. See our COVID-19 pages for detailed information about hospital visiting guidelines, COVID-19 tests and care in the community advice. See www.vaccinatecanterburywestcoast.nz for information about vaccinations.
We are at ORANGE according to the NZ COVID-19 Protection Framework
Last updated:
9th April 2022
Kia whakahaumaru te whānau, me ngā iwi katoa – this is to keep everybody safe:
By sticking to the rules above, you help keep our patients, staff, other visitors and yourself safe. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as our staff work hard to protect and care for some of the most vulnerable in our community.
Exceptions to the ‘one visitor’ policy
Visiting patients with COVID-19
You must NOT visit the hospital if you
Exceptions for people with disabilities
An exception will be made for people with disabilities who are in hospital or have to attend an outpatient appointment – where they need a support person to access health services. For example, a sign language interpreter, support person for someone with a learning disability, or someone to assist with mobility. The support person is in addition to the one permitted visitor.
Everyone visiting our facilities must wear a mask, no exceptions
While we appreciate that some people have legitimate reasons for being exempt from wearing a mask and may even have an official card to confirm this, people who cannot or will not wear a mask cannot visit someone in hospital or attend hospital, other than to access healthcare. This is another measure to minimise the risk to vulnerable patients.
Patients and visitors should also read the additional more detailed visiting guidelines for each specific hospital.
More COVID-19 information
Microbiology - Virology
DHHV
Exanthem subitum (Sixth disease)
HHV6 - PCR
Roseola infantum
2746
5.0
Patient Specimen - Min 0.5 mL CSF into sterile tube or 5 mL blood in EDTA tube
Paediatric Specimen - Contact laboratory
5
Human Herpes virus 6 - DNA detection
$485.64 (Exclusive of GST)
2746
Immunocompromised patients
HHV-6 disease in immunocompromised adults is usually due to reactivation of latent infection. HHV-6 may be an important opportunistic infection of organ transplant recipients and HIV sero-positive individuals.
HHV-6 is most evident as a cause of disease in BMT recipients.
If peripheral blood mononuclear cells are tested, distinguishing active from latent infection can be difficult. When a clinical syndrome is suggestive of HHV-6 disease, evidence of active infection can be demonstrated with a positive PCR result.
However, infection can commonly be present without symptoms therefore a positive PCR result does not prove that a clinical syndrome is caused by HHV-6. Detection of nucleic acid in tissue can provide stronger evidence. HHV6 has been detected in the PBMCs of healthy individuals. Therefore PCR assays on PBMCs may prove to be too sensitive and only useful for excluding current infection.
Primary infections
HHV-6 is recognised as a common childhood infection, which causes roseola (roseola infantum, exanthem subitum, sixth disease). Symptoms include high fever, a maculopapular rash that begins on the face or trunk, complications are rare. Often cases in children are asymptomatic with no roseola. A proportion of children present with febrile seizures.
Primary infection in adults is not common, it presents as a mononucleosis like syndrome with lymphadenopathy, or hepatitis.
"*" indicates required fields