The Emergency Cell at the Ministry of Health and Hospitals Reform headed by the Minister Said Barkat warned 17 ministerial departments to face the risk of “Swine flu” transmission to Algeria after the World Health Organization launched a fourth degree warning alert on the scale of risk which contains six degrees.

• The WHO confirms the transmission of the epidemic virus from human to human and that all the world countries are threatened with the flu.
• Official sources from the warning cell, established last Sunday by the Ministry of Health in order to follow up the development and spread of the virus in the world and begin all the necessary preparations and procedures to face the virus in case of transmission to Algeria, said that the cell warned 17 ministerial posts in the framework of the national coordination in order to conduct the emergency cases and be ready for any alert for an immediate intervention that would stop the spread of this virus in case it is transmitted to Algeria, particularly after statements by Kiji Focoda, Assistant of the General Director of the WHO saying “Tests and Analysis proved that the virus is transmitted from human to human, meaning that all the world countries are subjected to the virus spread, because people travelled by airplanes or ships”.
• Belkassem Salim, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, said; “Pasteur Institute and the National Network for controlling flu launches an inspecting campaign to limit kinds of flu and all the viruses in Algeria, as well as controlling them in order to ensure that there is no“H1N1”virus. Members of the emergency cell including specialists in epidemiology and bacteriology as well as experts in the emergency crises meet everyday with the Minster of Health in order to prepare the national plan to face and combat such respiratory acute epidemics”.
• The same national plan was prepared in 2003 in order to combat the SARS epidemic and in 2005 and 2006 to combat bird flu.