Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francis Kateh told a news conference in Monrovia that they could not find any scientific proof that the current outbreak was as a result of a dog meat eaten by the initial victim, the deceased 17-year-old Abraham Memaigar.

Since Memaigar’s death, four of his neighbors have tested positive, with another three most likely to be confirmed in the next days as they have tested indeterminate.

The source of the new outbreak is still a mystery and an investigation by the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research and the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been ongoing.

“Nearly complete genomes (99% coverage) were obtained from two samples (body swab and blood) taken from the patient posthumously,” Kateh told the news conference at the Liberian Emergency Operation Center. He said the current strain of the disease was the same as the previous.

“Both sequences are identical and are consistent with this cluster representing a continuation of the ongoing EBOV (Ebola virus) outbreak in West Africa, as opposed to a separate introduction from a reservoir population.

“The sequence groups closely with previous isolates from Liberia and is distinct from the viruses currently circulating in Sierra Leone and Guinea. The level of sequence divergence between this case and previous isolates is significantly lower than is expected based on the date of the isolation and outbreak-wide estimates of the virus’ rate of evolution. Understanding the significance of this finding requires further investigation. Sequencing of other cases associated with this flared-up outbreak is ongoing.”