Respiratory virus surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 43, October 20 to 26 2025
During Epiweek 43, 22 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, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia. During week 43, 2,041 specimens were collected, and 1,917 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 43, 427 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 22.3%), of which 402 specimens were Influenza A, and 25 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 107), Influenza A (H3) (n = 226), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 69), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 5), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 20).
SARS-CoV-2
In Epiweek 43, of the 1,850 specimens processed by 20 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 18 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 1%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 43, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 70,243 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 2,597 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 3.7%)