Respiratory virus surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 28, July 7 to 13 2025
During Epiweek 28, 21 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. During week 28, 1,376 specimens were collected, and 1,316 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 28, 158 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 12%), of which 145 specimens were Influenza A, and 13 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 92), Influenza A (H3) (n = 33), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 20), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 3), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 10).
SARS-CoV-2
In Epiweek 28, of the 1,222 specimens processed by 15 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 64 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 5.2%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 28, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 42,339 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 2,034 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 4.8%)