Influenza Update N° 478

Overview

^{Published 06 June 2024 | For reporting Week 21, ending 26 May 2024}

Influenza

• In the Northern hemisphere, elevated influenza activity continued to be reported in countries in Central America and the Caribbean and in South Asia, primarily due to influenza A(H3N2) viruses. In most temperate countries, influenza activity remained low at interepidemic levels.
• In the Southern hemisphere, countries in South America and South Africa continued to report elevated and increasing influenza activity and countries in Oceania reported elevated activity. In South America, activity was primarily due to A(H3N2) viruses, while in South Africa and Oceania influenza activity was primarily due to A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses.

 

SARS-CoV-2

• SARS-CoV-2 activity, reported from sentinel surveillance in 63 countries, was low overall. Some countries in Middle Africa, Western Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, and Oceania reported elevated activity. Small increases in activity were reported in South West Europe, Eastern Africa, and South East Asia.

WHO encourages countries, especially those that have received the multiplex influenza and SARS-CoV-2 reagent kits from GISRS, to conduct integrated surveillance of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and report epidemiological and laboratory information in a timely manner to established regional and global platforms. The guidance can be found here https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-integrated_sentinel_surveillance-2022.1.