Respiratory virus surveillance in the WHO African Region Epidemiological Week 49, December 2 - 8 2024
During Epiweek 49, 24 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zambia. During week 49, 1,338 specimens were collected, and 1,311 were tested for influenza.
In Epiweek 49, 90 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 6.9%), of which 57 specimens were Influenza A, and 33 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 31), Influenza A (H3) (n = 24), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 2), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 9), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 24).
SARS CoV-2
In Epiweek 49, of the 1,090 specimens processed by 18 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 89 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 8.2%).
Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 49, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 80,311 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 4,353 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 5.4%).