Updated 6.16pm: A senior New Zealand health official will travel to West Africa to help coordinate the response to the Ebola epidemic.

The Ministry of Health's director of emergency management Charles Blanch will join the World Health Organisation's foreign medical team in Sierra Leone in the next two weeks.

His role will be to match the offers of international assistance teams to current and future need in battling the disease.

"There's some indications that the epidemic may be turning, but there's a lot of work still to do."

Mr Blanch has previous experience in a similar role following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013.