A hostile, stone-throwing crowd in remote southeastern Guinea attacked a group of officials and journalists trying to get the word out about the risks posed by Ebola and do some disinfection work.  Eight people were killed, one more may still be missing.

“The eight bodies were found in the village latrine.  Three of them had their throats slit,” said Guinean government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara.

The delegation included local administrators, two medical officers, a preacher and three accompanying journalists.  But when the angry villagers armed with clubs and stones confronted them, the group tried escaping into the bush.

Guinea’s Prime Minister Mohamed Said Fofana it was “regrettable” that this happened just as the international community was mobilizing to combat Ebola.  The bloodshed illustrates the difficulties foreigners might have trying to teach suspicious and misinformed people.  Onslaughts of conspiracy theories about Ebola’s origins have undercut efforts to fight it.

Meanwhile, The UN World Health Organization raised the death toll in the West African Ebola Outbreak to about 2,630 out of 5,357 confirmed and suspected infections.