In a pioneering step towards strengthening pandemic influenza preparedness in Africa, Lesotho has become the first country to pilot the AFRO Influenza Surveillance Platform (AFFLU). This digital tool, adapted by the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) from the Eastern Mediterranean Flu (EMFLU) platform, is designed to modernize acute respiratory illness surveillance across the region. As part of a three-country pilot supported by the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework Partnership Contribution (PC), the platform will also be rolled out in Liberia and South Sudan later in 2025.
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AFFLU represents a leap forward in regional capacity to detect, monitor, and respond to influenza and other respiratory viruses. It serves as a tool for surveillance data collection, transmission and analysis, integrating both case-based and aggregate data to generate real-time insights and aligns with global platforms like RespiMart, and providing automated analytics. The platform enhances data quality, timeliness, and completeness by linking virological and epidemiological data, thereby enabling countries to make timely and informed public health decisions using routinely collected surveillance data. All these benefits not only contribute to strengthening current surveillance systems but are critical to pandemic preparedness.
The pilot training in Lesotho took place from 12–16 May 2025, equipping 18 end-users at four sentinel sites with the skills to collect and manage real-time data. The next two months will be critical to monitor implementation and refine operations.
“COVID-19 revealed gaps in our surveillance systems. The AFFLU platform allows us to address those gaps and strengthen our health response,” shared Dr Lieketseng Petcane, representing the Ministry of Health.
Lesotho's pioneering efforts are already generating valuable insights. Lesotho’s experience will directly inform implementation in Liberia and South Sudan and help shape the broader scale-up across the region. The pilot exemplifies how strategic digital investments contribute to the goals of the Global Influenza Strategy (2019–2030), the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework, and the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) framework.
By investing in platforms like AFFLU, the WHO AFRO Region is reinforcing pandemic preparedness at a crucial time, building systems that are not only technically robust but also agile, trusted, and scalable and can be put to use to improve influenza surveillance.
Photo credit: WHO/AFRO
Photo caption: Maseru District Hospital staff receive one-on-one coaching from WHO facilitator on how to navigate the AFFLU system