SANTÉ PUBLIQUE Le paludisme au Sahara algérien. D. Hammadi (1), S.C. Boubidi (2), S.E. Chaib (3), A. Saber (1), Y. Khechache (1), M. Gasmi (1) & Z. Harrat (2) (1) Service du paludisme et maladies parasitaires. Institut national de santé publique. Chemin Hai-El-Bakr, Hydra, 16000 Alger, Algérie. Tél. : 213 021 91 17 42, fax : 213 21 91 20 15, e-mail :
[email protected] (2) Service d’éco-épidémiologie parasitaire, Institut Pasteur d’Algérie, route du Petit-Staoueli. Dely Ibrahim, 16000 Alger, Algérie. (3) Service de prévention. Direction de la santé, de la population et de la réforme hospitalière, Wilaya de Ouargla, Algérie. Manuscrit n° 3356. “Santé publique”. Reçu le 17 novembre 2008. Accepté le 28 avril 2009. Summary: Malaria in Algerian Sahara. Thanks to the malaria eradication campaign launched in Algeria in 1968, the number of malaria Plasmodium falciparum cases fell down significantly from 95,424 cases in 1960 to 30 cases in 1978. Plasmodium vivax At that time, the northern part of the country was declared free of Plasmodium falciparum. Only Anopheles gambiae few cases belonging to P. vivax persisted in residual foci in the middle part of the country. In the malaria beginning of the eighties, the south of the country was marked by an increase of imported malaria anopheles cases. The resurgence of the disease in the oases coincided with the opening of the Trans-Saharan oasis road and the booming trade with the neighbouring southern countries. Sahara Several authors insisted on the risk of introduction of malaria or its exotic potential vectors in Algeria Algeria via this new road.