In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, influenza activity continues to increase in the month of May 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 May 2019, the proportion of tested cases for influenza in EMR is 85.8% out of 7,123 enrolled cases, 16.6% of the tested cases is positive and 83.4% is negative.
Influenza activity by sub-type
• In May 2019, no new cases of human influenza A(H5N1) were reported in Egypt.
• In the northern Africa influenza transmission zone, Egypt continued reporting moderate influenza activity with all seasonal subtypes co-circulating. Morocco and Tunisia reported no activity.
• In the western Asia influenza transmission zone, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait continued reporting co-circulation of influenza types A and B with influenza B virus predominating in Qatar. Jordan, Iraq, reported sporadic circulation of A(H1N1)pdm09 while Lebanon and oPt reported circulation of Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2) viruses. Syria and Sudan reported no activity.
• In southern Asia transmission zone, influenza activity continued to decrease with all seasonal influenza subtypes co-circulating in Afghanistan and Iran (Islamic Republic of); Pakistan reported no activity.
Figure 2: Circulating influenza viruses by subtype
Figure 3: Circulating influenza viruses in the EMR by subtype, April 2019
