In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, influenza activity continues to decrease in the month of August in many countries reporting data to FluNet and EMFLU namely, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates.
In August 2019, proportion of tested cases for influenza in EMR is 76.9% out of 2,999 enrolled cases, 14.6% of the tested cases is positive and 85.4% is negative.
Figure 1: Influenza geographic spread by type and subtypes, August 2019.
Influenza activity by sub-type
• In August 2019, no new cases of human influenza A(H5N1) were reported in Egypt.
• In the northern Africa influenza transmission zone, Egypt continued reporting low influenza activity with influenza B viruses being predominated while Morocco and Tunisia reported no activity.
• In the western Asia influenza transmission zone, influenza detections were low across reporting countries. Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait continued reporting co-circulation of influenza types A and B with influenza A(H1N1)pdm virus predominating in Saudi Arabia.
• Jordan reported sporadic circulation of B viruses while Iraq, Jordan, oPt and Syria reported no activity.
• In southern Asia transmission zone, Iran reported co-circulation of influenza types A and B with influenza A(H1N1)pdm virus predominating while Afghanistan and Pakistan reported no activity.
Figure 2: Circulating influenza viruses by subtype
Figure 3: Circulating influenza viruses in the EMR by subtype, August 2019
Sources
• FluNet
• EMFLU
Related link
Influenza monthly update, August 2019
