Influenza Update N° 470

Overview

^{Published 11 April 2024 | For reporting week 13, which ended 31 March 2024}

Influenza

• Influenza activity continued to decline in temperate zones of northern hemisphere. Globally, the proportion of influenza B viruses increased compared with the previous week. The predominant virus varied by geographical area.

• In the temperate zones of southern hemisphere, influenza activity remained low with few exceptions in South America, where influenza activity with mainly influenza A viruses is elevated.

SARS-CoV-2

• SARS-CoV-2 activity from sentinel surveillance, from 73 countries/areas/territories that met inclusion criteria*, overall remains low but is elevated in some countries of South and Central America, Eastern Europe, West Africa, West, Central, and East Asia, and Oceania. Increases in activity have been reported in Northern Europe, Eastern and Western Africa since the prior week.

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://covid.comesa.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-integrated_sentinel_surveillance-2022.1.