World influenza update as of 1 February 2019
February 7th, 2019
Summary
In the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere influenza activity continued to increase.
- In North America, influenza activity appeared to decrease slightly with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 predominating.
- In Europe, influenza activity continued to increase, with both A viruses circulating.
- In North Africa, influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 detections sharply increased in Morocco.
- In Western Asia, influenza activity continued to increase in some countries and appeared to decrease across countries of the Arabian Peninsula.
- In East Asia, influenza activity continued to increase, with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus predominating.
- In Southern Asia, influenza detections remained elevated overall. Influenza activity continued to increase in Iran (Islamic Republic of) with influenza A(H3N2) the predominant circulating virus.
- In the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, influenza activity remained at inter-seasonal levels.
- Worldwide, seasonal influenza A viruses accounted for the majority of detections.
National Influenza Centres (NICs) and other national influenza laboratories from 110 countries, areas or territories reported data to FluNet for the time period from 07 January 2019 to 20 January 2019 (data as of 2019-02-01 04:30:14 UTC). The WHO GISRS laboratories tested more than 232136 specimens during that time period. 59457 were positive for influenza viruses, of which 58436 (98.3%) were typed as influenza A and 1021 (1.7%) as influenza B. Of the sub-typed influenza A viruses, 24559 (77.7%) were influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and 7058 (22.3%) were influenza A(H3N2). Of the characterized B viruses, 85 (34.6%) belonged to the B-Yamagata lineage and 161 (65.4%) to the B-Victoria lineage.