Respiratory Virus Surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 28: July 10 to 16, 2023
During epidemiological week 28, 25 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Angola, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia. During week 28, 1,850 specimens were collected, and 1,818 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 28, 118 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 6.49%), of which 95 specimens were Influenza A, and 23 specimens were Influenza B, out of 1818 specimens processed. The following Influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 43), Influenza A (H3) (n = 37), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 15), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 16), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 7).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 28, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 53,227 sentinel surveillance specimens, of which 5,868 were positive for SARSCoV-2.