Federal Trade Commission policing alternative medicine approaches to SARS - Editorial

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  July, 2003  

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The SARS epidemic remains a daily news item as Chinese public health officials attempt to control new cases of thc mysterious infection. International cooperation has largely controlled the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) primarily by isolation and quarantine of acute cases. As of mid-May 36 countries have cases of SARS and the mortality rate was initially underestimated at 5%; current statistics suggest a mortality rate of greater than 8%. With no treatment currently available there is considerable fear for personal and business travel to China and the Orient. In addition there is concern that this virus may have a lull in the summer months, but will reappear more vigorously in the fall and winter throughout the world, causing considerably more havoc. As a DNA virus, SARS has a considerable period of time to mutate, making for more resistant and dangerous forms to emerge. Some drug companies are busy altering chemical agents suitable for controlling AIDS, in the hope that such agents will be import ant for treatment of SARS. However, at the moment no chemical has been demonstrated to affect SARS. Given the lack of public health leadership in China, many Chinese are embracing Chinese herbal medicine as a prevention and/or treatment. Regrettably, the World Health Organization is largely ignoring such efforts as counterproductive to controlling the infection. The thought that this infection may be prevented by a vaccine may be too late for this fall and winter-it appears that the public will need to fend off SARS with any immune support available in the marketplace.

Given this paucity of medical support for SARS, it is incredible that the Federal Trade Commission is seeking to hinder any commercial efforts to publicize natural and alternative medicine treatment and prevention for SARS. There is a legitimate concern that the public may be misled by fraudulent claims. Nevertheless, efforts to prevent communications about potential immune support to prevent SARS deserve free expression. The Federal Trade Commission is screening the internet for companies promoting products to "prevent, treat or cure SARS," with the intention of policing and shutting down such communication. It would seem entirely unreasonable, given the ineffectiveness of public health actions, for the Federal Trade Commission to police public discussion of alternative medicine approaches to SARS.

The following notice was recently sent to a company vending alternative approaches to SARS:

To: www.cureforsars.net

Re: Notice of Potential Illegal Marketing of Products or Therapies to Prevent, Treat, or Cure Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

Federal Trade Commission staff has reviewed marketing claims on your web site relating to the prevention, treatment or cure of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). We remind you that the FTC Act requires that health-related claims, such as claims that a dietary supplement will prevent, treat or cure SARS, or claims that an air filtration device or cleaning agent can kill or eliminate the virus thought to cause SARS, must be supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence at the time the claims are made. In other words, it is against the law to make health claims, whether directly or indirectly through the use of a product name, web site name, metatags, or any other means, without scientific support or to exaggerate the benefits of products or services you are promoting. Violations of the FTC Act may result in legal action in the form of Federal District Court Injunction or Administrative Order. An order also may require that you pay money back to consumers.

In addition, claims that a product is intended to prevent, diagnose, mitigate, treat, or cure SARS may cause the product to be an unapproved new drug or device under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (Act). The Act prohibits the introduction into interstate commerce of unapproved new drugs and certain devices.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), SARS is an infectious respiratory illness that appears to be spread primarily by close person-to-person contact by cough or sneeze, allowing droplets containing infectious virus to reach the respiratory tract of persons in close proximity. SARS may also be spread by touching objects contaminated with infectious droplets and then touching one's eye(s), nose or mouth. Although federal and world health authorities are investigating possible vaccines to prevent SARS and drugs to treat the illness, there are currently no medicines proven to prevent, treat or cure SARS or the coronavirus believed to be the cause of SARS.

If you are marketing a dietary supplement for SARS, you should also be aware that a broad coalition of representatives of the dietary supplement industry has issued a joint statement indicating that no dietary supplement has been shown to prevent or treat SARS and advising against the marketing of dietary supplements as a remedy for SARS. The joint statement of the American Herbal Products Association, Consumer Healthcare Products Association, Council for Responsible Nutrition, National Nutritional Foods Association, and Utah Natural Products Alliance is available through those organizations' web sites.