Norma P. Tavakoli*, Seela Nattanmai, Rene Hull, Heather Fusco, Lela Dzigua, Heng Wang, and Michelle Dupuis Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany NY, and School of Public Health, SUNY Albany, Albany, NY ABSTRACT Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) was detected in specimens from patients hospitalized with symptoms of encephalitis or meningitis. A real-time PCR assay was developed which has a linear dynamic range of 5 to 5 x 106 copies of HHV-6 and a sensitivity of 5 gene copies per reaction. While the assay detects both subtypes HHV-6A and HHV-6B, it is specific and does not cross-react with a selected specificity panel. A total of 1,482 patient specimens, which were collected between 2003 and 2007, were tested; 26 specimens from 24 patients were found to be positive by real-time PCR for HHV-6. The HHV-6 detection rate in this population was therefore 1.75%. The majority of the specimens tested (>95%) were cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens. We ...