Respiratory virus surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 20, May 12 to 18 2025
26 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. During week 20, 1,376 specimens were collected, 1,298 and were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 20, 150 specimens tested positive for the influenza virus (positivity of 11.6%), of which 127 specimens were Influenza A, and 23 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A
(H1N1)pdm09 (n = 52), Influenza A (H3)(n = 71), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 4), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 9), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 14).
SARS CoV-2
In Epiweek 20, of the 1,297 specimens processed by 22 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 77 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 5.9%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 20, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 30,043 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 1,412 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 4.7%).