Enforce laws on medicine adverts — GMA
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has called on the regulatory bodies and the law enforcement agencies to enforce the laws regulating advertisements on medicines and the treatment of ailments to protect the health of the public.
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It said claims by some unscrupulous people of having the capacity to treat certain diseases were causing great harm to patients, intensity of diseases and increases in deaths.
At a press conference held in Accra on Wednesday, the President of the GMA, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Dr Ebenezer Ewusi-Emmim, said the GMA had observed with concern the escalation in advertisements on unproven treatment, prevention and cure remedies for very serious ailments that threatened the health and safety of Ghanaians and patients, in gross breach or disregard for the laws of the land.
He, therefore, asked the law enforcement agencies and the regulatory bodies, such as the Ghana Police Service, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), the Traditional Medicine Practice Council and the National Media Commission, to sit up and save the situation before it got out of hand.
Showing pictures of unsuspecting patients who had lost their limbs due to some herbal or unusual medicinal practice, DCOP Dr Ewusi-Emmim said the GMA could only seek public support against the practice but it was left to the regulatory bodies that had power to ensure that such things did not happen.
Declaring that the advertisers and agencies that advertised unproven treatment, prevention and cure remedies were equally liable, the GMA President said a typical example of such obnoxious and misleading advertisement had to do with a massage parlour that was offering treatment for cancer of the breast, brain, liver, kidneys, lungs, prostate, among other ailments, in clear breach of the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851).
Deception of consumers
Section 113 of the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851), which deals with ‘Deception of consumers’, states, among other things: “A person commits an offence if that person labels, packages, sells or advertises a drug, a herbal medicinal product, cosmetic, medical device or household chemical substance in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive or misbranded as regards its character, constitution, value, potency, quality, composition, merits or safety.”
It also states that a drug or herbal medicinal product is misbranded if it is so coloured, coated, powdered or publicised in a manner that changes the product or if it is made to appear to be of a better or greater therapeutic value than it really is.
In addition, it states that a drug or herbal medicinal product is misbranded if it is not labelled in the prescribed manner or if its label or container or anything accompanying the drug or herbal medicinal product bears a statement, design or device which makes a false claim for the drug or herbal medicinal product, or which is false or misleading.
Prohibited advertisement
On prohibited advertisements, Section 114 of the Public Health Act (Act 851) states that a person shall not advertise a drug, a herbal medicinal product, cosmetic, medical device or household chemical substance to the public as a treatment, preventive or cure for a disease, disorder or an abnormal physical state unless the advertisement has been approved by the GSA.
The act also prohibits advertisement for the treatment, prevention or cure of diseases such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including AIDS, diseases connected with the human reproductive functions, alcoholism, appendicitis, asthma, cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, fibroid, leprosy, obesity, sexual impotence and tuberculosis.
Unregulated advertisement
According to DCOP Dr Ewusi-Emmim, some of those unregulated advertisements were purely motivated by profit and did not have the interest or well-being of the Ghanaian at heart.
He said some patients indulged those products and only presented themselves to health facilities when complications set in, sometimes with fatal consequences.
He urged the regulatory agencies to, as a matter of urgency, collaborate their efforts and ensure strict adherence and enforcement of the laws regulating advertisements on medicines and the treatment of ailments as listed in the Public Health Act in order to protect the health of the vulnerable public.
He also prompted the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney-General’s Department to assist the various regulatory agencies to prosecute offenders.
He said when that was done, the lives of people who fell victim on a daily basis to those unproven and false claims by fraudsters claiming all sorts of cure through advertisements would be saved