MONROVIA, Montserrado – Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer, Francis Kateh, revealed that genetic sequencing is currently underway to determine how 15-year-old Nathan Gbotoe became infected with the Ebola virus.

The sequencing is expected to take weeks and requires exhaustive investigation, according to Kateh. “The process is not done overnight because the result is going to benefit Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the world over,” he noted.

Kateh pointed out that the identification of the source of the newest outbreak is a priority to health authorities in the country.

He said a team from the Center for Disease Control in the United States was currently in the country working on the sequencing of the victim’s genes.

After the sequencing, scientists will look at the different sequences in their database to find out if there is a match with the Ebola viruses that existed before.

“If no match of the gene is found in the country, health authorities will match the result with other Ebola viruses they have in their database from Guinea and Sierra Leone,” Kateh said. “Health authorities are cautiously optimistic that they will have a match of the virus in Liberia, which will determine where particularly in the country such virus exists.”

He said the result would lead the team to the final stage in determining the source of the newest outbreak.

Meanwhile, the country’s chief medical officer also said approximately 160 persons will be released on Dec. 11 from the quarantine list if they all continue to show no symptoms of the disease.

“I do not have the details with me about the communities the quarantined persons are residing in Monrovia, but the majority are in the Duport Road area,” Katah said.

Liberia recorded its first Ebola case in March 2014. Since then, the country has seen more than 10,000 Ebola cases and more than 4,000 deaths.

The outbreak in Liberia was first declared over on May 9, only to re-emerge seven weeks later when a 17-year-old boy died from the disease and more cases were reported.

The new Ebola cases in Liberia come less than a week after Guinea released its last patient and began the 42-day countdown to being declared Ebola-free. Sierra Leone is also counting down.

Ebola was first identified in 1976 and occurs in regions of sub-Saharan Africa. The recent epidemic is the worst and has killed about 11,300 people, mainly in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.

Featured photo by Stephen Kollie