Respiratory virus surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 24, June 9 to 15 2025
During Epiweek 24, 18 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Seychelles, South Africa, Togo, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia. During week 24, specimens were collected and 1,001 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 24, 388 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 41%), of which 383 specimens were Influenza A, and 5 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 291), Influenza A (H3) (n = 75), Influenza A (H5) (n = 2), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 15), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 2), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 3).
SARS-CoV-2
In Epiweek 24, of the 926 specimens processed by 15 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 62 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 6.7%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 24, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 35,017 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 1,673 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 4.8%)