Respiratory virus surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 38, September 15 to 21, 2025
During Epiweek 38, 17 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia (Figure 1). During week 38, 1,153 specimens were collected, and 1,131 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 38, 146 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 12.9%), of which 126 specimens were Influenza A, and 20 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 46), Influenza A (H3) (n = 25), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 55), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 2), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 18).
SARS-CoV-2
In Epiweek 38, of the 1,097 specimens processed by 14 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 19 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 1.7%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 38, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 59,485 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 2,474 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 4.2%)