Respiratory Virus Surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 07, February 12 to 18, 2024
During Epidemiological week (Epiweek) 7, 18 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia. During week 7, 1,363 specimens were collected, and 1,361 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 7, 128 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 9.4%), of which 115 specimens were Influenza A, and 13 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza virus subtypes were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 22), Influenza A (H3) (n = 86), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 7), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 2), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 11).
In Epiweek 7, 53 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 4.4%), of the 1,216 specimens processed by 15 laboratories regionally.
Cumulatively, from weeks 1 to 7, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 10,545 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 609 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative regional positivity rate 5.8%).