Three cleared of Ebola after arrival in NZ

Dr Stephen McBride gets kitted out in safety gear at Middlemore Hospital's infections wing that has been set up in case there is an Ebola outbreak. Photo / Dean Purcell

A clean bill of health remains the status for people coming to New Zealand from Ebola-affected African nations.

Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman says we've had 74 people from West African countries come through our borders since August the 10th.

"Nobody is currently on temperature monitoring, we've had 3 people who have been and they've all been cleared, nobody has needed laboratory testing.

"Jonathan Coleman says it's highly unlikely New Zealand will have an Ebola case, though he also acknowledges it's possible.

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the three people recently monitored for symptoms of ebola were all New Zealand health workers returning from working with ebola sufferers in West Africa.

Dr Coleman confirmed this morning three people had been monitored daily for 21 days after returning from west African countries but had since been cleared.

They had signalled well in advance that they were returning from working with ebola patients.

He said nobody was currently on temperature monitoring and he was confident the current measures New Zealand had in place were sufficient for the low number of people arriving from affected countries.

Those measures legally require passengers to declare whether they have travelled to countries affected by the virus - a step which was standard practise internationally. They are then asked a series of six questions to assess whether they had contact with ebola sufferers.

Those who had were put on daily checks by public health officers and could be quarantined if they developed symptoms.

"We are keeping up on a daily basis with what's happening in other jurisdictions and we are very confident we've got the right level of border screening appropriate for NZ and the numbers coming across our borders."

He said 74 people had arrived from those countries since August 10 - and those numbers would decrease further now that Nigeria was ebola free.

Dr Coleman said those who may have been exposed were then put on a daily monitoring regime.

"If it was more serious we would refer them straight to the hospital obviously for testing, isolation, the whole shebang. But no one has needed that level yet. No one has needed a blood test who's crossed our border."

Dr Coleman said the Government was yet to make a decision about whether to send a contingent of health workers over as a part of international efforts to combat ebola. "The safety of New Zealand health workers would be paramount if we were to go down that route."