IMPORTANT - COVID Test Request for Travel
September 16, 2020
The Ministry of Health has advised all New Zealand laboratories that COVID testing for travelling repatriation / pre-departure travel, are not funded by the NZ government. Pre-departure travel COVID testing must be requested within the specific timeframe as indicated on the airline letters the traveller holds - usually between 48 hours to 72 hours from when the result is required, airline…
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Helicobacter pylori Testing in Children
September 14, 2020
This clinical update outlines a change in approach to laboratory testing of H. pylori infection in children. Currently a significant proportion of H. pylori faecal antigen requests received by Pathlab come from children under 16 years, however local and international guidelines for children (references given below) recommend that investigation and subsequent treatment for H. pylori should be…
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“Post-Surge” Microbiology Testing during COVID Pandemic
September 02, 2020
Thank you for your cooperation during this challenging time. It is very much appreciated as we try and minimise the pressure on our laboratory staff and maintain good turnaround times and test quality for all the assays that we perform. COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 test volumes have now settled to some extent from the large test surge that we saw a few weeks ago. However, test numbers remain elevated at…
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Microbiology Requesting During COVID-19 Testing Surge
August 13, 2020
The recent community cases of COVID-19 have caused a huge surge in demand for molecular SARS-CoV-2 testing, approximately 1000 tests per day locally over the past couple of days. Other microbiology and molecular requests need to be urgently reduced to free up staff and preserve reagents and consumables for this COVID-19 testing. We would ask that all routine microbiology testing is minimised as…
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Change in serum free light chain testing
August 11, 2020
As of the 1st September 2020, Pathlab will be changing the instrumentation in which kappa and lambda serum free light chains are performed. Historically these tests have been performed using the SPA Plus and analysed using freelite reagent, both supplied by The Binding Site. The Binding Site has recently released an upgraded instrument, the Optilite. This instrument uses the same freelite reagent…
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