Waikato District Health Board’s computer system was down with a virus, but it is back on line after recovery.

A Conficker virus attacked the computer system, which is upgraded on time, oddly enough wehn the system was undergoing an upgrade. Around 3000 systems across the Waikato District Health Board (DHB) region were shut. Conficker virus entered the DHB's IT system.

Alan Hesketh, the Health Ministry's deputy director general of health information directorate, said the virus attack was believed to have been random, and part of the ongoing appearance of "Malware" (malicious software) in the digital world.

To check the other health boards' computer systems, they were connected and no reports of virus were detected. But the timing for the virus attack made it manageable as it was the arrival of Christmas and the people were winding down with tasks.

Some patient notes and histories had been missing at first, but it all had been taken care off.