Health Fraud: HIV/AIDS and Sexual Enhancement Scams Essay

The Definition of the Health Fraud

• Health fraud is a product that is described and advertised as preventing and treating different diseases and health conditions.
• However, the safety and effectiveness of these products are unproven by the Food and Drug Administration and by any medical association.
• Many health fraud scams are designed only to gain profits, and the use of the intentionally advertised products can lead to unexpected negative outcomes such as serious disease consequences and the problems with stating the right diagnosis.

Health Fraud and Quackery

• The form and the result of using health fraud scams is the quackery as a process of treating the disease and different health conditions with the focus on unproven remedies and strategies.
• Bloodletting and breast enhancement with the help of popularly advertised simulators are the famous examples of the quackery.
• Thus, different types of sexual enhancement products are the quackeries in their nature.

The Characteristic Features of Health Frauds

Health frauds are designed to draw the customers’ attention and to stimulate their buying behavior. To determine health frauds among the other advertisements, it is necessary to pay attention to such features as:

• The absence of the producer or provider’s contact information.
• Advertisements are presented as real cases and histories of real persons who used the products to improve their health.
• Advertised products are expected to treat a wide range of symptoms.
• The use of vague language, attention grabbers (“innovation”, “exclusive”, “secret”, “natural”), and jargon.

HIV/AIDS Fraud

The main goal of the HIV/AIDS fraud providers is to receive the profit and to convince the buyer.

Thus, only approved drugs can be used in the therapies proposed by physicians, and these drugs are widely known and discussed by

• HIV/AIDS frauds are professionals. developed to persuade the public that the medicine for the disease exists, and even though it is limited, it is available only for the customers of the concrete producer.
• The immediate recovery mentioned in scams is impossible in the case of HIV/AIDS.
• The use of personal stories and references to the tests and surveys conducted in countries is health fraud.
• The cure is not foreign developed yet. People can typically for relying only on supportive therapies.

Sexual Enhancement Scams

• Sexual Enhancement Scams developed to enhance the breast or penis size do not work, as it is stated by sex therapists and other physicians.
• Health fraud producers manipulate people’s emotions and fears to receive revenue.
• Any statement about the quick and observable breast or penis enhancement is not and cannot be supported with the facts.
• Size enhancers for men can work only as erection enhancers if any effect is observable.
• Moreover, different proposed dietary supplements and devices can be harmful to people’s health.

The use of drugs sold without prescription can be dangerous for people’s health.

The Preventive Measures

To avoid contributing to the multi-million industry of creating health frauds, it is necessary to:

• Contact a physician or a pharmacist to receive a professional commentary on the product.
• Search the information available about the product while referring to the United States’ medical associations.
• Check the information about the product with references to the Food and Drug Administration.