The Ebola outbreak has taken a turn for the worse as eight people were killed for simply trying to educate villagers in Guinea, one of the countries hardest hit in West Africa.
More than 2,600 people have died from Ebola since the virus was identified in March. Now the outbreak has affected at least 5,300 individuals in West Africa and the number is still rising.
There's no cure for Ebola, so the best that can be done is to prevent infection from happening in the first place. To do this, a massive information campaign has to be undertaken in the affected countries, most especially in the most remote villages of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
Unfortunately, educating people is harder than it sounds.
Wome is a remote village in the forested, southeastern portion of Guinea. Eight people, including local officials, staff from Eau de la vie, a nongovernmental organization, and journalists, headed for the village to spread awareness about the Ebola virus.
The group arrived at the village and was able to meet with the chiefs in peace. They were even welcomed with the Wome traditional greeting, which involved 10 kola nuts. Everything was going as planned until a group of young people arrived and started throwing stones at the delegation. Then they were dragged by the mob and killed.
"The eight bodies were found in the village latrine. Three of them had their throats slit," said Damantang Albert Camara, a spokesman for the Guinea government.
Officials in Guinea are still investigating the attack, but six suspects have been arrested so far.
As Wome is in a remote area, it is understandable why the villagers would regard foreigners with distrust. The visiting team knew this, so that's why locals were invited to join. Unfortunately, a familiar face was not enough to prevent the attack.
A similar incident also happened in Nzerekore, a village located 30 miles from Wome, last month. In a market, residents started to panic when workers from Red Cross started spraying disinfectant when a funeral finished. Youssouf Traore, Guinean Red Cross president, said that this was because a rumor had spread that what the workers were spraying was, in fact, intended for easing Ebola's transmission to locals. There were no fatalities at that time but it showed how a rumor can lead to mass hysteria.
The attack in Wome puts a damper on efforts to curb the outbreak, most especially when health workers are crucial to the fight against Ebola. Guinea's Prime Minister Mohamed Saïd Fofana said the incident was regrettable as it happened right when the international community is mobilizing to aid affected countries in West Africa.
