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Join on Telegram Rabat – The Ministry of Health reassured Moroccan citizens that the country has a sufficient stock of domestically produced and imported chloroquine, an anti-malarial medication now used to treat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Director of Medicines and Pharmacy at the Ministry of Health Bouchra Meddah said the ministry has adopted measures to guarantee the medicine’s meticulous and safe implementation.
Meddah reassured all Moroccans suffering from chronic diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, which require chloroquine for treatment, that they “can obtain them free of charge and on an exceptional basis, at the regional and provincial pharmacies closest to their residences.”
Moroccans who need the medicine should have a medical prescription.
The ministry is working to answer all citizen requests at hospitals and at other levels throughout the country, she added.
The Ministry of Health announced the country’s decision to approve chloroquine as a novel coronavirus treatment earlier this week.
The ministry emphasized that the decision to use the medication and its derivatives is a sovereign act.
Director of university hospital Ibnou Rochd, Moulay Hicham Afif, said that “the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine will be widened in several countries around the world, like China, the United States, Tunisia, and France.”
The health expert said the use of this medicine in some of these countries yielded promising results for treating patients with COVID-19.
Afif explained that the ministry’s decision to use the medication followed consultations with the Technical and Scientific Commission of the National Program for the Prevention and Control of Influenza and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections, during a joint meeting at ministry headquarters on March 20.
The committee decided that chloroquine “should be administered to patients with COVID-19 to obtain better efficacy in treatment, ” due to positive results on an international scale.
To date, Morocco has confirmed 225 coronavirus cases, including six fatalities and seven recoveries.
The number may increase. Over 2,000 Moroccans are currently under medical surveillance to determine if they have been infected.
