The government of Kenya is moving to try to quell concerns about the Ebola virus taking hold in the country.

The outbreak of Ebola this year has claimed over a thousand lives in West Africa. [Chinanews.com]

The World Health Organization this week has labeled Kenya as a high-risk zone for Ebola, as the country is a major travel hub in Africa.

Despite the new label, Kenyan transport minister Michael Kamau insists his country is still a safe place to travel in and through.

"First of all there is no reported case of Ebola in Kenya; there is no reported case of Ebola in Tanzania, or Uganda for that matter where we have people crossing. All the other people are coming by air, don't forget four years ago we had Ebola in a neighboring country and we did not get to this."

Still, a number of airlines have announced plans to suspend their flights into Kenya for the time being.

Meanwhile, on the ground in West Africa, Chinese medical crews are working to raise public awareness about the spread of Ebola.

Wang Yaoping is the head of the Chinese medical team in Sierra Leone.

"We provide training to help both patients and local medical staff, since the local staffers do not know how to prevent and diagnose the disease. We have also provided training to Chinese companies and Chinese nationals. We have put up related information on the Chinese embassy's website, reminding Chinese nationals of how to cope with the outbreak. So far, we have done three lectures in this regard."

So far the outbreak of Ebola this year has claimed over a thousand lives in West Africa.

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