Algeria will continue to use the drug hydroxychloroquine, known as the anti-malaria drug, to treat the coronavirus disease, a member of its scientific committee said, even after the World Health Organisation suspended clinical trials of the drug."We've treated thousands of cases with this medicine, very successfully so far," said Mohamed Bekkat, a member of the scientific committee on the North African country's COVID-19 outbreak. "We haven't noted any undesirable reactions," he told AFP agency.Public figures including US President Donald Trump have backed the drug as treatment for the virus, prompting governments to buy the product in bulk, despite several studies showing it to be ineffective or even counterproductive in treating COVID-19. The study found that administering the medicine, which is normally used to treat arthritis, or, separately the related anti-malarial chloroquine, actually increased COVID-19 patients' risk of dying. Both drugs can produce potentially serious side effects, particularly heart arrhythmia.But Bekkat, who is also head of the Order of Algerian Doctors, said the country had not registered any deaths caused by hydroxychloroquine. Algeria decided in late March to treat COVID-19 patients with a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, an antibiotic.