30 years ago, when my family and I first went to live in a malaria-prone area, we religiously took as a prophylactic the recommended weekly dosage of two Chloroquine tablets. From that experience, I would not exactly describe either Chloroquine or its more soluble and slightly less toxic variant, Hydroxychloroquine, as "candy".
Yuk !!!
Even back then, Chloroquine was rapidly losing its effectiveness as an anti-malarial medicine. So much so that after about 12 months, we abandoned the practice of taking regular doses of the stuff (particularly after the Director of Malaria Control himself stated that the best protection against the disease was to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes).
There are now very, very few malaria-affected parts of the world left in which Chloroquine / Hydroxychloroquine is still effective. This is particularly so where the deadly Falciparum strain of the parasite is prevalent (as it is across the whole continent of Africa). It is not surprising, then, that by the mid-2000s (if not earlier), most African countries had abandoned the use of Chloroquine as either the primary treatment for, or preventative of, malaria.
- See the following extract from the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Trends in
Antimalarial Drug Use in Africa (nih.gov)
It is therefore highly doubtful if the use of either Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine is still widespread in Africa - despite claims to the contrary by the Australian businessman Clive Palmer.
In fact, it is highly unlikely that either of those drugs have been in widespread use in Africa for almost 15 years now.