Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

Algeria’s health minister has said that the anti-malaria drug chloroquine will be used to treat all of the COVID-19 patients in the country.

Abderrahmane Benbouzid, the minister for health, population and hospital reform, announced earlier this week that chloroquine will be administered to all confirmed cases, according to reports.

Chloroquine is a medication primarily used to prevent and treat malaria.

Benbouzid said: “The Scientific Committee set up at the Ministry of Health, based on the opinion of other specialities and experts, has decided to start chloroquine treatment on those who tested positive for COVID-19 as well as on all those who will have signs of contamination.

“In our opinion, and based on past experience, we hope that this method will reduce the number of people affected.”

According to reports, Benbouzid confirmed the decision alongside an expert from the Chinese ministry of health during a video conference with the press.

He said: “The choice of this anti-malarial medication to treat patients with COVID-19 was based on experiments conducted in other countries that have quality healthcare systems.”

He cited the case of China which he said “seems to have succeeded in containing the epidemic”.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for caution regarding the use of chloroquine, mainly because of the low number of patients treated with it so far.

According to local media, France also announced that they would trial the treatment on 30th March following a series of tests in China.

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