Respiratory Virus Surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 24, June 10 to 16, 2024
During Epidemiological Week (Epiweek) 24, 22 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. During week 24, 1,374 specimens were collected, and 1,360 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 24, 148 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 10.9%), of which 108 specimens were Influenza A, and 40 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 58), Influenza A (H3) (n = 39), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 11), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 7), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 33).
SARS CoV-2
In Epiweek 24, of the 1,155 specimens processed by 19 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 32 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 2.8%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 24, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 38,794 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 2,456 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 6.3%).