Respiratory Virus Surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 34, August 19 to 25 2024
During Epidemiological Week (Epiweek) 34, 26 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. During week 34, 1,669 specimens were collected 1,637 and were tested for influenza.
SARS CoV-2
In Epiweek 34, 272 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 16.6%), of which 181 specimens were Influenza A, and 91 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 32), Influenza A (H3) (n = 145), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 4), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 3), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 88).
In Epiweek 34, of the 1,493 specimens processed by 21 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 28 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 1.9%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 34, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 56,543 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 3,116 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 5.5%).