A PLoS Medicine essay points out that very little information is available about influenza in Africa. As in other parts of the tropical world, flu can occur at any time of the year but there are no reliable figures on its prevalence and incidence. As it may be hard to distinguish flu from other diseases that cause fever, gathering such information in Africa, where there are many such diseases, is problematic.

Also lacking is information as to the efficacy of flu vaccines in Africa.

The article concludes that: “…data from sporadic studies suggest that influenza is prevalent in Africa and the disease may have considerable impact on morbidity and mortality on the continent. A raised awareness of the presence of common febrile diseases such as influenza is essential for the clinical management of patients”.

The author call for surveillance programmes to be introduced (as is already happening in parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America) and for clinical trials of flu vaccines to be conducted in Africa.