NAIROBI — Kenya confirmed its eighth Ebola case on Sunday, a 49-year-old hospital attendant who had cared for the country's first patient, as the Democratic Republic of Congo reported that the virus had reached an eighth province.

Patrick Amoth, Kenya's director-general for health, said the man tested positive while in quarantine after being identified as a contact of the first patient. "Today, 38 people were tested, and one tested positive for Ebola," Amoth told Citizen TV, according to Reuters.

The new infection is the latest sign that the deadliest Ebola outbreak in Congo's history is spilling beyond its borders. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of the virus, for which no approved vaccine or specific treatment exists, according to the World Health Organization. Kenyan officials say they have not detected community transmission, but the virus has now infected relatives and medical staff who came into contact with a single traveller.

"He is a 49-year-old man who is not a healthcare worker. He developed fever, headache and muscle pain," Amoth said, according to Al Jazeera. The man worked as a patient attendant cleaning utensils and linens and was probably exposed to Kenya's first case, Amoth said.

A health ministry source told Reuters the man developed symptoms on Saturday, was separated from others in quarantine and tested positive on Sunday.

Kenya's first patient was a 40-year-old Kenyan man who travelled from Congo through Uganda and arrived in Kenya on October 3, The Associated Press reported. A relative drove him to hospital, and he died at Nairobi Hospital on October 5.

Since then, three of his close relatives and three health workers who treated him have tested positive, the AP reported. On Saturday the health ministry announced four new cases in a single day, taking the total to seven, before Sunday's result made it eight.

About 130 contacts, including health workers, were listed after the first patient died, and 128 remained in quarantine as of Sunday, according to the AP. Amoth said people in quarantine are being tested when they develop symptoms, and that the other six patients were stable after receiving supportive treatment.

In Congo, the health ministry confirmed on Sunday that the outbreak had spread to Nord-Ubangi, a province on the border with the Central African Republic, Reuters reported. The ministry recorded two cases there, including one death, according to the AP. The confirmation came four days after Jean-Jacques Mbungani Mbanda, a former health minister who now sits in parliament, announced the same two cases on social media.

The outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people in Congo since it began in May, with at least 9,400 cases recorded, according to the AP. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, using data through October 14, put the confirmed toll at 9,277 cases and 4,478 deaths across 65 of the country's 167 health zones, with 924 patients hospitalised in isolation.

Ituri province in the northeast is the epicentre and accounts for almost three quarters of confirmed cases. The ECDC figures show 6,806 cases and 3,148 deaths there. North Kivu, where the WHO has said substantial transmission continues, has recorded 1,991 cases and 1,133 deaths.

"We see pockets of Ebola generally going down, but unfortunately geographically it's spreading out," Mohamed Yakub Janabi, the WHO's regional director for Africa, told the AP.

In Wamba health zone, health teams have begun periodic home visits because people were afraid to go to hospital, and many cases have been reported around mining areas, the AP reported. "Ebola is a community disease. If the community does not cooperate, it will be very difficult," Serge Ngalebato, an epidemiologist, told the news agency.

Bundibugyo virus is one of the rarer species of Ebola. The WHO said in a disease outbreak notice on October 8 that no approved vaccines or specific treatments exist for it, and that the crude case fatality ratio in Congo stood at 48.2 percent as of October 6. A clinical trial to identify effective treatments began enrolling patients on July 2, the agency said.

The WHO declared the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern on May 17. Its most recent risk assessment rates the risk as very high in Congo, high in countries that share a land border with it, and low for the rest of the world.

Uganda recorded 20 cases and two deaths earlier in the outbreak and was declared free of the virus in August, according to Al Jazeera. France reported one imported case in June in a humanitarian doctor returning from the affected area, the ECDC said.

Kenya's first case exposed gaps in border screening, the AP reported. The government has since tightened checks at its borders, set up an emergency hotline for anyone who suspects contact with a patient or develops symptoms, and designated a gate at Nairobi's main airport for all flights arriving from 10 countries at the centre of the outbreak.

Neighbouring Tanzania has introduced mandatory health declarations and 21-day monitoring for travellers from high-risk countries, according to the AP. The United States bars travellers who have been in Congo within the previous 21 days from boarding commercial flights to American destinations, under an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

Inside Congo, North Kivu's provincial authorities will impose a one-week ban from Monday on people entering from Ituri, the AP reported. Vehicles will be limited to two people on a motorbike or four in a car, and large public gatherings, including sports events, nightclubs and political demonstrations, will be suspended for the duration.