Kenyan Ebola cases rise to eight in two weeks

An eighth person has tested positive for Ebola in Kenya just over two weeks after the country recorded its first case.

Kenyan Health Ministry director-general Patrick Amoth said the country's eighth case was a 49-year-old person in quarantine who had attended to the first Ebola patient.

That patient died two days after arriving in the country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo via Uganda in early October.

The disease has killed at least 4,000 people in Congo since May in what has become the country's deadliest outbreak.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or through contact with contaminated surfaces, such as bedding and clothing.

Up to 128 people, including health workers, identified as contacts of Kenya's first patient remained in quarantine as of Sunday.

Dr Amoth said those quarantined were being tested after developing symptoms. He said six other patients were stable after receiving treatment.

Kenya's first case involved a 40-year-old Kenyan man who travelled from Congo through Uganda, arriving in Kenya on October 3. A relative drove him to the hospital, and he died on October 5.

Three of his close relatives are among those who have tested positive for the virus. Three health workers have also tested positive.

Neighbouring country Tanzania has tightened border screenings and introduced mandatory health declarations and 21-day monitoring for travellers arriving from high-risk countries.

Kenya's first case exposed gaps in screening measures at border points. The country has since strengthened screening and set up an emergency hotline for suspected contacts of Ebola patients or anyone who develops symptoms.

The country has designated a gate at Nairobi's main airport for flights arriving from 10 countries at the centre of the Ebola outbreak.

Congo's fast-moving Ebola outbreak spreads to eighth province

Response efforts are struggling to keep up in Congo where the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease reached an eighth province on Sunday.

Government data shows 66 health zones have been affected since the start of the outbreak.

"We see pockets of Ebola generally going down, but unfortunately geographically it's spreading out," World Health Organization regional director for Africa, Mohamed Yakub Janabi, told AP in an interview in Beni, eastern Congo.

Mr Janabi said health officials were trying to convince infected people to seek medical assistance, adding that some deaths occurred in the community outside of health centres.

Epidemiologist Serge Ngalebato told AP that health workers in the country's north-eastern Wamba health zone had introduced periodic home visits because people were too afraid to go to hospital.

Efforts to contain the virus there were initially met with resistance, but Mr Ngalebato said residents became more understanding and began reporting cases as time went on.

"Ebola is a community disease. If the community does not cooperate, it will be very difficult," he said.

He said most cases reported in his zone were around mining areas where the population moved constantly, causing many deaths.

The spread of the outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, is fuelled by mass population movements, rebel violence, mistrust and poor working conditions of frontline workers.

The Ituri province in eastern Congo remains the disease's epicentre, with almost three quarters of confirmed cases, according to the government health data.

From Monday, authorities in the neighbouring North Kivu province will introduce a one-week-ban on people entering the province from Ituri in an effort to slow the spread, Congo's state news agency ACP reported.

Other measures will include limiting the number of people in a vehicle to no more than two on a motorbike or four in a car, as well as suspending big public gatherings such as sports, nightclubs and political demonstrations.