Plan National De Preparation, D'Alerte Et De Riposte En Cas De Menaces Sanitaires A Potential Epidemique Et D'Urgences De Sante Publique De Portee Internationale

Objectives

Algeria’s national preparedness, alert and response plan seeks to implement the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 and build the capacities needed to detect, assess, notify and respond rapidly to epidemic-prone health threats and public-health emergencies of national or international concern.[1][2][3]The framework addresses emerging and re-emerging diseases and all-hazards risks of biological, zoonotic, food-related, chemical, radioactive, nuclear, vector-borne and environmental origin.[4][5]

• Strengthen the essential IHR capacities for legislation, coordination, surveillance, response, preparedness, risk communication, human resources, laboratory services and points of entry.[1][6]
• Develop sensitive and flexible surveillance, including early warning, laboratory confirmation, assessment of threats, and rapid notification of potentially internationally significant events.[7][3][8]
• Maintain national all-hazards preparedness and response plans, integrate public-health emergencies within the ORSEC emergency-management framework, and test arrangements through real-world or simulation exercises.[9][10][11]
• Prevent, control and respond to priority communicable diseases, including sustaining elimination or control of diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis and cholera, while reducing measles, whooping cough and typhoid fever.[12]
• Strengthen specific arrangements for zoonoses, food safety, chemical incidents and radionuclear events, including risk assessment, sectoral mapping, operational plans and response procedures.[13][14][15][16]
• Institutionalise health-control functions at airports, ports and land border crossings, covering safe travel and transport, drinking water, food safety, waste, vectors and coordination with relevant authorities.[17][18][19]

Implementation

Implementation combines a legally anchored, multisectoral IHR model with capacity assessment, annual and sectoral planning, strengthened operational coordination, and collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).[4][20][21][22]It uses a participatory and consensus-based process involving health authorities, other ministries, national institutions, technical experts and international partners.[4][23][17]

• Coordinate implementation through the Ministry of Health, Population and Hospital Reform and the designated IHR National Focal Point Bureau, supported by an intersectoral committee bringing together ministerial departments and relevant state institutions.[20][24]
• Strengthen the National IHR Focal Point’s authority, staffing, communications, equipment and logistical resources; maintain validated contact details; establish information flows with sectoral focal points; and ensure its capacity to assess events, communicate with WHO and undertake IHR notification.[5][25][22]
• Operate a health-system network involving public, parapublic and private providers, supported by 48 wilaya health and population directorates and 560 public health establishments.[12]Include specialised national institutions such as the National Institute of Public Health, Pasteur Institute of Algeria, National Blood Agency, National Toxicology Centre, pharmaceutical-control laboratory and national pharmacovigilance and materiovigilance centre.[7]
• Use documentary review, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, institutional visits, stakeholder discussions and technical support missions to assess nine essential capacities and five health risks, validate progress and develop follow-up action plans.[17][21]
• Maintain mandatory disease notification across public and private facilities, update the notifiable disease list, adjust reporting frequency to epidemiological conditions, analyse data weekly against epidemiological thresholds, and use laboratory networks led by the Pasteur Institute of Algiers to confirm clinical information.[7][3]
• Develop standard operating procedures for detection, reporting, confirmation, verification, assessment and notification; integrate IHR-related diseases and events into routine surveillance; and strengthen feedback, intersectoral information exchange and cross-border collaboration.[8][26]
• Establish or reinforce a multisectoral emergency operations centre, multidisciplinary rapid-response teams, emergency coordination procedures and supplies of personal protective equipment and disinfectants.[9][26]Rapid-response teams are described as mobilisable within 48 hours.[9]
• Develop risk-communication plans and procedures, test communication through simulation exercises, provide information seminars for partners, and improve monitoring and evaluation tools for communications and workforce training.[27][11]
• Assess training needs across health and other relevant sectors, integrate IHR requirements into workforce plans, maintain expert rosters, and train personnel in outbreak detection, response, biosafety, biological-risk management and safe transport of infectious materials.[27][11][28]
• Strengthen laboratory governance through network coordination, inspections, accreditation, technical guidance, biosafety strategies, national and international partnerships, and collaboration between public-health and veterinary laboratories.[18][28]
• Implement integrated plans at points of entry and sustain zoonoses, food-safety, chemical and radionuclear coordination mechanisms through shared case definitions, risk lists, expert inventories, mapped hazardous sites, operational procedures and exercises.[19][29][14][15][16]
• Monitor progress through capacity assessment, follow-up and evaluation meetings for sectoral plans, WHO notification arrangements, periodic surveillance reporting and simulation exercises.[22][26][11]The source does not provide a consolidated indicator framework, fixed reporting timetable, quantified targets or formal accountability system.[3][27][28]
• Mobilise emergency resources through a national emergency fund financed by a tobacco tax, while reviewing mechanisms for resource mobilisation and reallocation.[10]No quantified budget, costed activity plan, funding gap or financing allocation is specified.[10][26][14]

Monitoring & Evaluation

The framework establishes surveillance, assessment, notification and response capacities under the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, with the National IHR Focal Point serving as the principal channel for communication with the World Health Organization (WHO) on events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern.[5][6][25]It combines routine disease surveillance with event-based detection, laboratory confirmation, early warning and multisectoral information exchange.[7][3][26]

• Maintain mandatory notification procedures, including the notifiable disease list established under Circular No. 1126 of 17 November 1990 and updated by Ministerial Order No. 133 of 30 December 2013 to reflect IHR requirements.[7]
• Adjust data collection and notification frequency to the epidemiological context and disease characteristics, while analysing surveillance data weekly at all levels using epidemiological thresholds and laboratory input.[7][3]
• Integrate diseases and events of potential international concern into the existing surveillance system, supported by revised standard operating procedures for detection, reporting, confirmation, verification, assessment and notification.[8]
• Strengthen information feedback to reporting sites, communication of surveillance findings, intersectoral exchange, and cross-border collaboration, including periodic notification of surveillance reports to WHO and other partners.[8][26]
• Use public and private laboratory networks, led by the Pasteur Institute of Algiers, to confirm clinical data, and assess laboratory capacity using WHO tools alongside accreditation, inspection and quality-assurance measures.[7][18][28]
• Assess essential capacities through documentary review, including review of reported IHR progress, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, institutional visits, stakeholder discussions and feedback of recommendations to national authorities.[23][21]
• Evaluate preparedness, response and risk-communication arrangements through reviews of public-health emergency management, simulation exercises and real-world testing, using lessons from response experience to update national plans.[9][10][11]
• Monitor sectoral implementation through follow-up and evaluation meetings, including annual sectoral plans and expected outputs such as an updated surveillance system and a disseminated official list of notifiable diseases.[22][8]

Identified weaknesses include inconsistent feedback to data collectors, limited distribution of the Monthly Epidemiological Report, insufficient evaluation of early-warning and community-reporting systems, parallel surveillance datasets, limited documentation of national experience, and pressure on data-collection staff.[9]Risk communication lacks dedicated monitoring and evaluation tools and standard operating procedures, while training evaluation is absent.[27]Food-safety monitoring requires stronger quality assurance, documentation and intersectoral data exchange.[13]The framework does not provide a consolidated indicator set, quantified performance targets, monitoring dashboard, fixed reporting timetable, detailed evaluation methodology or formal accountability mechanism beyond notification, reporting, capacity assessment and operational follow-up arrangements.[6][3][26][30]

Costing & Financing

Financial detail is limited: no overall budget, costing methodology, expenditure allocation, quantified funding gap, financing source for most activities, resource-mobilisation target or economic assumption is specified.[21][27][26][14]The plan nevertheless identifies substantial resource needs for surveillance, emergency coordination, laboratory systems, points of entry, workforce development, multisectoral response and specialised chemical, radionuclear, food-safety and zoonotic capacities.[6][31][11][16]

• Provide the National IHR Focal Point with the means required to coordinate implementation, analyse events and risks, communicate with WHO, and maintain national and sectoral information flows.[5][22]
• Budget annual sectoral implementation plans and reinforce the Focal Point Bureau with personnel, technical equipment, communications capacity, logistics and financial resources.[22]
• Equip a multisectoral operational centre and rapid-response arrangements, including supplies of personal protective equipment and disinfectants for emergency management.[26]
• Strengthen laboratory networks, accreditation, biosafety, inspection, specialist expertise and links between public-health, veterinary and international reference laboratories.[18][28]
• Support integrated preparedness at ports, airports and land borders, including inspections, vector control, waste management, drinking-water and food-quality measures, staff training and intersectoral coordination.[18][19]
• Mobilise resources through the reported national emergency fund financed by a tobacco tax, and review its mechanisms for mobilisation and reallocation.[10]

The emergency fund is the only explicit financing mechanism identified in the supplied material; its size, annual revenue, eligibility rules, expenditure profile and available balance are not specified.[10]No monetary values are provided for workforce development, laboratory improvements, emergency operations, border controls, simulation exercises, risk communication, or action plans for food-safety, chemical and radionuclear events.[27][11][14][15][16]