KINSHASA: The World Health Organisation on Tuesday voiced concern about the “scale and speed” of an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 130 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and warned it could be lengthy.

The UN health agency has declared the surge of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever in the east of the country an international health emergency. No vaccine or therapeutic treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola which is responsible for the outbreak.

Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century. Workers with shovels were seen digging to clear an abandoned Ebola treatment centre in the eastern city of Goma. “We are currently spreading sand and preparing the site to help care for people affected by Ebola virus disease,” said Philippe Jamaica, who was supervising the work. Tonnes of emergency medical supplies, including infection prevention kits and tents, as well as experts have arrived in recent days, local WHO footage showed.

With the recent cases largely concentrated in difficult-to-access areas hit by long-running conflicts, few samples have been laboratory-tested and figures are based mostly on suspected cases.

Congolese Health Min­ister Samuel Roger Kamba told reporters on Tuesday that there had been 136 deaths suspected to be linked to Ebola and about 543 suspected cases, calling for international aid to help combat the spread.

WHO chief Tedros Adh­anom Ghebreyesus said he was “deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic” while the agency’s representative in the DRC said a vaccine candidate called Ervebo was being considered.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2026