In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, influenza activity continue to decrease in the month of July in many countries reporting data to FluNet and EMFLU namely, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory, Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Fig. 1. Influenza geographic spread in Eastern Mediterranean Region, July 2018
Influenza activity by subtype
- In July 2018, no new cases of human influenza A(H5N1) were reported in Egypt.
- In the northern Africa influenza transmission zone, Egypt reported sporadic co-circulation of A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3) viruses, while Morocco reported no activity.
- In the western Asia influenza transmission zone, Qatar reported co-circulation of all seasonal influenza viruses with predominance of A(H1N1)pdm09, while in Iraq A(H1N1)pdm09 was only detected. Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon and oPt reported no activity.
- In south Asia transmission zone, Afghanistan, Iran (Islamic Republic of) and Pakistan reported no activity.
Fig. 2 shows the weekly distribution of influenza subtypes.
Fig. 2. Weekly positive cases of influenza by subtype, Epi week 30/2017–2018
Circulating influenza viruses by subtype
- During July 2018, national influenza centres and influenza laboratories in the Region tested a total of 2535 specimens for influenza viruses of which 185 tested positive (7%).
- The average percentage of positivity rates is 7 %, with highest positivity rate recorded in Iraq and Qatar.
- Of the viruses tested; 161 (87%) were influenza A viruses, including 117 (63%) influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus and 20 (11%) were influenza A(H3) virus. Influenza B (Lineage Not determined) virus accounted for 24 (13%) (Fig. 3).
