An aid worker returning from fighting Ebola ''may well'' bring the deadly disease to New Zealand, a Southern District Health Board member says.
DHB member Neville Cook's ''concern'' about the outbreak came as volunteers from the South seek to help fight the epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
''I don't know about Dunedin, but in Invercargill ...there [are] three groups of people who for humanitarian reasons are sending people to Africa to help people in some of these areas.''
''We are putting ourselves at risk, and we have people who are really keen [to help],'' he said at yesterday's board meeting.
New Zealand could not afford to be ''complacent''.
''I think we would be naive if we think that New Zealand is totally insulated from people coming back with Ebola.
''It may well happen to us.''
This comes as a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said there were nine New Zealanders registered as being in Sierra Leone, one in Guinea and two in Liberia.
The spokesman said it could not break the numbers down by profession and there could be other New Zealanders in the three countries who had not registered.
Mr Cook made the comments as the board discussed a report on the DHB's planned response in the event of an outbreak.
The report, presented by chief medical officer David Tulloch, said Christchurch had been designated the main treatment centre for Ebola in the South Island.
If there was an Ebola case in the South - which was a ''low'' probability event - patients would be taken to Christchurch by ambulance or military aircraft, the report said.
If necessary, patients would be stabilised before their journey north in the negative pressure facility at Dunedin Hospital's emergency department.
