The second level is represented by the Divisional Department of Health which is supervises all the Socio Sanitary Divisions within the Department. This level of technical support in the transmission of information, specific adaptation of national norms, monitoring of their application and supervision of Management teams within the Socio Sanitary Divisions. The peripheral level comprises of the Socio Sanitary Division which is in turn divided into Health areas. * Public sector facilities * Integrated Health Centre The basic operations unit is the Integrated Health Centre (IHC) that is the meeting point between the health service and the beneficiary community. Referral Hospitals They are the primary level of treatment for the integrated health centres. These facilities are responsible for the treatment of patients referred by the Integrated Health Centres. The network of Integrated Health Centres and their reference hospital constitute the Socio Sanitary Division. However in some places, the Health centres and dispensaries make up for the lack of Socio Sanitary Divisions. They will gradually be replaced by the Socio Sanitary Divisions. - Specialised Health establishments and facilities They are namely the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL), the National Blood Transfusion Centre, (NBTC), the National Essential Drugs Procurement Centre (NEDPC), Raymond POATY hospital, Anti-Tuberculosis Centre (ATC) and the Centres for Ambulatory Treatment (CAT), responsible for the treatment of AIDS patients. General Hospitals The latter are on the Apex of the pyramid : the most representative is the Brazzaville Teaching Hospital. These are high level institutions and a referral centre for primary hospitals. Private Sector Institutions The right to create private socio-sanitary facilities is guaranteed by article 30 of the 20th January 2002 Constitution. In general, these are clinics, medico-social centres, Doctor’s clinics. And out of 298 private medical centres listed in the Republic of Congo, only 8.8% are in rural areas. 64,9% and 20,3% respectively of all private facilities are Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire alone. Special programmes are being implemented in the fight against diarrhoeal diseases, reproductive problems, major epidemic diseases. These programmes are supported technically and financially by Bilateral and Multilateral 23