Respiratory virus surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 30, July 22 to 28 2024
During Epidemiological Week (Epiweek) 30, 19 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, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. During week 30, 1,280 specimens were collected and 1,218 were tested for influenza.
SARS CoV-2
In Epiweek 30, 210 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 17.2%), of which 163 specimens were Influenza A, and 47 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 28), Influenza A (H3) (n = 115), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 20), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 10), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 37).
In Epiweek 30, of the 1,213 specimens processed by 16 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 70 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 5.8%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 30, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 47,730 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 2,806 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 5.9%).