Call for Papers

Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Disease Outbreaks in North Africa: Virological, Mycological, and Bacteriological Perspectives

Special Issue of the Journal of Medical Sciences (JOMS), Volume 21, 2026

Submission deadline	7 December 2026
Submissions open	1 October 2026
Final decisions	28 December 2026
Special issue completed	31 December 2026 (articles are published online continuously as soon as they are accepted)
Publication fees	None: no submission, processing or publication charges
Peer review and licence	Double-blind peer review; open access under CC BY 4.0

Early submission is encouraged. Accepted manuscripts that complete peer review after 28 December 2026 will be published in the journal's next regular issue (Volume 22, Issue 1, 2027) as part of this special-issue collection.

Background and rationale

Infectious disease outbreaks are occurring more often, spreading further, and causing more deaths than they did a decade ago. The Ebola disease outbreak caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization on 17 May 2026. It is the latest reminder that a single zoonotic spillover can outrun containment within weeks. Hantavirus tells a quieter but related story: infections are appearing more often outside the regions where they were once considered rare, driven by shifting rodent ecology, land use and climate. Neither trend has stayed confined to where it began.

North Africa sits at the crossroads of these pressures. The region is in climatic transition, sees substantial cross-border population movement, and has public health systems that are still building their surveillance capacity. It is therefore a plausible site for the next unexpected outbreak. Yet outbreak data from the region remain thin in the international literature compared with sub-Saharan Africa, Asia or Europe. This special issue is intended to close that gap by providing a dedicated venue for rigorous, region-specific research on the viral, fungal and bacterial threats emerging across North African countries.

Aims and scope

The special issue will publish work on emerging and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks, whether viral, fungal or bacterial, that has a demonstrated epidemiological or clinical link to North Africa. We welcome studies that:

• document rising incidence;
• characterise novel or under-reported pathogens;
• evaluate surveillance and diagnostic capacity;
• synthesise regional trends in outbreak preparedness and response.

Topics of interest

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Hantavirus and other rodent-borne viral infections in North Africa
• Filovirus disease preparedness and cross-continental outbreak risk
• Emerging respiratory viral pathogens and zoonotic spillover
• Antimicrobial-resistant bacterial outbreaks (MDR/XDR organisms)
• Invasive and opportunistic fungal infections with rising incidence
• Vector-borne and climate-sensitive infectious diseases
• Molecular epidemiology and genomic surveillance of outbreak pathogens
• One Health approaches to outbreak detection and response
• Public health system preparedness, diagnostic capacity, and gaps in North African settings
• Case reports and case series of novel or unusual regional outbreaks

Article types

The special issue accepts the following article types:

• Original Research Articles
• Review Articles (systematic, scoping and narrative)
• Short Communications
• Case Reports and case series

The special issue will open with an Editorial by the Guest Editors. Each article type follows the requirements in the journal's Author Guidelines.

Why submit to this special issue

• Topical relevance: the call comes at a time of intense global attention to outbreak-prone pathogens.
• Dedicated regional focus: the issue addresses a documented gap in the international literature.
• No fees and immediate open access: there are no charges at any stage, and articles are free to read and reuse under CC BY 4.0.
• Continuous publication: each article is published online, with a Crossref DOI, as soon as it is accepted and proofed, without waiting for the full issue. The journal's target stage-by-stage times are set out in its Editorial Process and Timeline.
• Guest-edited visibility: the issue is guest-edited, and it will be promoted to regional and international infectious disease networks.

Editorial team for this special issue

Guest Editors

Dr. Fatimah Alqdeeri Lecturer, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Sabratha University, Libya Google Scholar

Dr. Nadia Sifennasr Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tripoli, Libya Google Scholar

Dr. Fawzia Shawesh Department of Medical Laboratory, Faculty of Medical Technology, University of Zawia, Libya Google Scholar

Dr. Abdelhakam Hassan Ibrahim Ali Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology; Dean, Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, University of Al-Butana, Sudan Google Scholar

Handling Editor

Dr. Elloulu Ben-Darif Department of Microbiology, University of Tripoli, Libya Google Scholar

Managing Editor (Special Issue)

Dr. Shamsi Saad Shamsi Lecturer, Department of Research and Consultancy, Faculty of Medical Technology, Sebha University, Libya ORCID · Google Scholar

Editorial process for this special issue

Special-issue manuscripts go through the same double-blind peer review and meet the same standards as regular submissions. Final decisions rest with the journal's Editor-in-Chief. Manuscripts authored by any member of the special-issue editorial team are handled independently by another editor, and that team member has no access to their review. The process follows the journal's Peer Review Policy and COPE guidance on guest-edited collections.

How to submit

1. Prepare the manuscript according to the Author Guidelines.
2. Submit through the journal's online system at sebhau.edu.ly/journal/joms/submissions.
3. On the submission form, select the section "Special Issue: Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Disease Outbreaks in North Africa".
4. In the cover letter, state that the manuscript is submitted to this special issue.

Contact

For enquiries about this special issue, contact Dr. Shamsi Saad Shamsi, Managing Editor (Special Issue), at [email protected].