NAIROBI - The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified Kenya as a "high-risk” country for the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

Kenya was vulnerable because it was a major transport hub, with many flights from West Africa, a WHO official said.

This is the most serious warning to date by the WHO that Ebola could spread to East Africa.

Health experts are battling to contain the outbreak in West Africa, where it has killed more than 1,000 people.

Canada said it would donate up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to help fight the outbreak.

Airport health checks

Ebola was first reported in Guinea in February, before spreading to Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous state, is the latest to be affected, reporting a third Ebola-related death on Tuesday. The WHO’s country director for Kenya, Custodia Mandlhate, said the East African state was "classified in group two; at high risk of transmission”.

Health checks at the main airport in the capital, Nairobi, have been stepped up in recent weeks.

The government said it would not ban flights from the four countries hit by Ebola.

"We do not recommend ban of flights because of porous borders,” health cabinet secretary James Macharia said.