By Aaron Ross and Emma Farge LONDON/NAIROBI/GENEVA, May 27 (Reuters) - In an Ebola outbreak, hours matter. Yet the response to the deadly and fast-spreading epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is weeks if not months behind - and missing thousands of people who may be at risk.

The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in order to contain an Ebola outbreak, saying

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said fighting in DR Congo was hampering efforts to stop spread

An American doctor who's been exposed to Ebola twice during his missionary work in Africa says raising his children in Congo is safer than having them grow up around technology, specifically smartphones.

Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse hopes to open within a week a 50-bed Ebola treatment centre in the area of the outbreak in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo,

As Patrick LaRochelle waits in a specialized hospital room in Prague to see whether he has Ebola, he told The Post, his former colleagues in Congo are beginning to die of the disease.

The head of the World Health Organization says Ebola has killed at least 7 people in Congo, but the U.N. agency says it knows the epidemic "is much larger."

There is one handwashing station and one infrared thermometer to fight the Ebola epidemic in this camp for 10,000 displaced people in Bunia, a city at the heart of the outbreak in eastern Congo.

There is denial of the disease within the population, with some members wanting to claim the bodies of suspected and/or confirmed cases,” a doctor at one hospital said.

Police in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo fired shots in the air after angry crowds attempted to reclaim the bodies of loved ones who had died at an Ebola treatment centre in Mongwalu, two local journalists told the BBC.