The Department of Health & Family Welfare Nagaland has cautioned against the promotion of misleading medical advertisements under Section 7 of the Drugs & Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954.
It prohibits any person from participating in the publication of advertisements referring to drugs in terms that suggest or are calculated to lead to their use.
This includes procurement of miscarriage in women or prevention of conception in women, maintenance or improvement of the capacity of human beings for sexual pleasure, and correction of menstrual disorders in women.
It also prohibits advertisements for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of 54 diseases, disorders, or conditions such as Appendicitis, Blindness, Cancer, Leprosy , Sexual impotence, and Sterility in women among others.
It further stated that Section -7 provides a penal provision, wherein on conviction an imprisonment up to 6 months, or a fine, or both. While subsequent convictions carry imprisonment up to 1 year, or a fine, or both.
In the light of of these legal provisions, the health department informed all print media, publishers, advertisement agencies, and social media users to refrain from publishing, promoting, or broadcasting drug/medicine products that contravene the 1954 Act.
Strict legal action shall be initiated against such defaulters, it added.