India, May 19 -- The Congolese health minister announced the opening of three treatment centres in the Ituri region in eastern Congo on Sunday evening as he visited the region amid the ongoing Ebola outbreak.

"We know that the hospitals are already under stress because of the patients," said Samuel Roger Kamba, the health minister, while visiting Bunia, the capital and largest city in Ituri. "But we are preparing to have treatment centres at all three sites in order to be able to expand our capabilities."

The World Health Organisation declared the Ebola disease outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday, after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths in Congo and two in neighbouring Uganda.

Although the ou...