The Ghana Health Service is on an aggressive hunt for the source of the outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus disease which has killed 2 persons in the Ashanti Region.

Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Franklin Asiedu Bekoe says the Service has begun aggressive contact tracing.

Earlier, 98 people were under quarantine as suspected contact cases. However, he noted that 39 of them have been discharged after they were cleared by authorities for not exhibiting the symptoms.

In an interview with JoyNews, Dr Bekoe said his outfit will increase surveillance.

"Our approach is about containment. So what we are doing is that we are making sure that we identify all contacts by involving the community members who have a better knowledge of the community, so that if the case should occur, immediately we detect and manage," he said.

He also mentioned that "our hospitals have a designated holding room to manage the cases" that would be recorded.

When asked if the GHS is involving the Wildlife Department due to the zoonotic nature to help to ascertain the source of the Marburg Virus, Dr Bekoe replied in the affirmative.

He added that the GHS together with officials of the Wildlife Department are working hand in hand to "be sure how the disease got into the locality so we can prevent future occurrences."

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) will in the coming days deploy a team of experts to assist Ghana to fight the outbreak of the Marburg virus disease in the country.

The team will provide coordination, risk assessment, and infection prevention measures in support of ongoing investigations into the latest outbreak of the Marburg virus.