The Algerian Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform announced on 23 March the use of a drug to treat patients proven to carry the Covid-19 virus. “Based on the experience of some countries, Algeria’s top scientific committee decided to implement a new treatment protocol, based on a drug both produced locally and imported. It will be prescribed in confirmed cases and it is available in sufficient quantities,” said health minister Abderrahmane Benbouzid in a state TV interview. The minister did not give more details on the drug, but the note sent by the ministry to the directorates of health and populations indicates that it is indeed Chloroquine, a drug already used by several countries.
Officials at the Ministry of Health said Algeria has begun negotiations with two pharmaceutical groups, the French Sanofi and the Jordanian Hikma, to order large quantities of drugs made from the chloroquine to treat patients the COVID-19 virus. On the ground, Dr. Bekkat Berkani, President of the Council of the Order of Doctors said treatment using chloroquine has already begun at El Kettar Hospital and that it will take several days to get some preliminary results. (Source MEA Risk LLC)
And in Morocco
Rabat, March 24, 2020 (AFP) – Morocco has authorised hospitals to use antimalarial drugs in treating the new coronavirus, according to a document seen by AFP, as scientists urge caution over encouraging results from small trials. The Moroccan health ministry on Monday gave hospitals and regional health directors the green light to start using hydroxychloroquine and related compound chloroquine “in the care of confirmed COVID-19 cases”.
In a message seen by AFP, it said that “efforts have been made to ensure the availability of these medicines”, urging caution in how the stocks are managed.
Rabat last week ordered the Moroccan branch of French drug maker Sanofi to hand over its entire stock of Nivaquine and Plaquenil, both of which contain chloroquine. Studies in France and China have found that the drug helped patients suffering from the COVID-19 illness, and France on Monday ordered its use in severe cases. US President Donald Trump on Monday said chloroquine could be a “gift from God”. He has been criticised by scientists for overhyping the drug, and on Monday the World Health Organization urged caution over its use. BC later reported that a woman in Arizona who heard Trump talk about chloroquine ended up in hospital and her husband died after they took a form of chloroquine she had used to treat her koi fish. Authorities in Nigeria said hospitals had seen cases of chloroquine poisoning after Trump’s comments.
Experts have urged the public to remain cautious until larger clinical trials validate the smaller studies. In its note, Morocco’s health ministry said it took its decision after consulting with a scientific committee which recommended prescribing chloroquine along with another drug called azithromycine. Morocco’s transport minister, Abdelkader Amara, who tested positive for the new coronavirus on March 14, has already said he was taking Nivaquine. “My health is stable. I have no fever or respiratory symptoms. The headaches are almost gone. I just feel a little tired,” he told private radio station Medi 1. Morocco has recorded 143 cases of the COVID-19 illness, with four dead. The country has three screening centres and 1,642 intensive care beds for 35 million inhabitants.
