Respiratory Virus Surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 36, September 2 to 8 2024
During Epidemiological Week (Epiweek) 36, 26 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. During week 36, 1,549 specimens were collected, and 1,501 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 36, 205 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 13.7%), of which 135 specimens were Influenza A, and 70 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 38), Influenza A (H3) (n = 67), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 30), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 9), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 61).
SARS CoV-2
In Epiweek 36, of the 1,358 specimens processed by 20 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 42 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 3.1%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 36, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 60,506 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 3,293 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 5.4%).