Respiratory virus surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 42, October 13 to 19 2025
During Epiweek 42, 26 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, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia (Figure 1). During week 42, 2,322 specimens werecollected, and 2,222 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 42, 397 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 17.9%), of which 368 specimens were Influenza A, and 29 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 137), Influenza A (H3) (n = 154), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 77), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 5), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 24).
SARS-CoV-2
In Epiweek 42, of the 2,012 specimens processed by 22 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 28specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 1.4%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 42, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 68,393 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 2,579 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 3.8%)