John Key: NZ 'not immune' from Ebola

Exposure threat: Hospital staff in Frisco, Texas, wear protective gear as they carry admit a patient suspected of having Ebola. Photo / AP

New Zealand is "not immune" to the arrival of the deadly Ebola disease and may send military or humanitarian assistance overseas to help combat its spread, Prime Minister John Key says.

Mr Key this afternoon said the likelihood of the virus reaching New Zealand remained low but "you have seen a situation where at least potential cases have gone to Australia so you can see that we're not completely immune from that".

Appropriate checks were currently in place at airports "but if we start getting to the point where we feel as though there's not enough being done then again we'll consider that matter".

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"The threat really for us is greater if we start seeing a case in our nearest neighbour Australia or locations where New Zealanders travel a lot to, like the United States."

The Government was taking a number of precautions to prepare for any suspected cases developing in New Zealand.

"There's a unit established at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, we've changed the designations around Ebola and we continue to work with our offshore partners.

"We're taking it very seriously."

Mr Key said New Zealand may offer humanitarian or military assistance overseas to help fight the disease.

"Internationally you can see that people are going to work pretty hard to try and contain it in the event that the disease was to mutate which is obviously a much more serious potential risk and so that's something we will consider but we haven't taken any advice on that yet."