Respiratory Virus Surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 25, June 17 to 23, 2024
During Epidemiological Week (Epiweek) 25, 17 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. During week 25, 1,088 specimens were collected and 1,084 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 25, 182 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 16.8%), of which 149 specimens were Influenza A, and 33 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 97), Influenza A (H3) (n = 25), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 27), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 12), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 21).
SARS CoV-2
In Epiweek 25, of the 1,061 specimens processed by 14 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 27 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 2.5%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 25, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 39,855 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 2,483 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 6.2%).