The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has called for strict enforcement of laws regulating the advertisement of medication and treatments of some ailments regarded as unlawful under the Public Health Act.

The Association appealed to all relevant stakeholders especially the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney General’s Department to effectively join forces to prosecute offenders to serve as a deterrent to others.

The Association has described the growing phenomenon as “worrying” and a threat to human health and safety of Ghanaians and a gross breach of the public health Act (Act 851).

This was contained in a press statement signed by the DCOP Dr E Ewusi-Emmim , and Dr Frank Serebour, President and General Secretary of the GMA, respectively and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Cape Coast on Thursday. It said “The GMA has noted with concern an escalation of advertisements on unproven treatment, prevention and cure remedies for very serious ailments that threatened the health and safety of Ghanaians and patients as gross breach or disregard for the laws of the country.” The statement said the obnoxious and misleading advertisement in the media where massage palours were offering treatment for cancer of the breast, brain, liver, kidney are aclear contravention of the regulation or guidelines against the Public Health Act. It said: “These claims by such unscrupulous persons are causing great harm to patients and increasing morbidity and mortality across the country. Some patients indulge these providers and present to health facilities only with complications, sometimes with very fatal consequences.”

The statement said Section 114 of the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851) states that: “A person shall not advertise a drug, a herbal medical product, cosmetic, medical device or household chemical substance to the general public as a treatment, preventive or cure for a disease, or an abnormal physical state, unless the advertisement has been approved by the authority.”

Additionally, it said, “the Public Health Act prohibits the advertisement of treatment, prevention or cure for sexually transmitted diseases including Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) or diseases connected with the human reproductive functions, and other genito-urinary diseases.”

The GMA said some of these unregulated advertisements in the media were purely motivated by profit motives with no interest of the public at health.

The statement appealed to the public to desist from patronising the services of such people.