In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, influenza activity continues to decrease in the month of October 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. Circulating influenza viruses in the EMR by subtype, October 2019.
In October 2019, Proportion of tested cases for influenza in EMR is 96.2% out of 9,148 enrolled cases, 32.5% of the tested cases is positive and 67.5% is negative.
Figure 1: Influenza geographic spread by type and subtypes, October 2019.
Influenza activity by sub-type
• In October 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 increased across reporting countries. Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait reported co-circulation of influenza types A and B with influenza B predominately detected in Kuwait while Bahrain reported co circulation of A(H1N1)pdm and B. Jordan and oPt reported no activity.
• In southern Asia transmission zone, Iran reported co-circulation of influenza types A and B with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 predominately detected while Afghanistan reported sporadic influenza B detection.
Figure 2: Circulating influenza viruses by subtype
Figure 3: Circulating influenza viruses in the EMR by subtype, October 2019
Sources
• FluNet
• EMFLU
Related link
Influenza monthly update, October 2019
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