FDA/State AIDS Health Fraud Task Forces
Evaluating Medical Therapies
The Task Forces are a network of AIDS Health Fraud Task Forces throughout the United States developed as a proactive approach to combat these fraudulent product/treatment promotions affecting people with HIV/AIDS and their partners, family, and friends. The network, sponsored by the US Food & Drug Administration, strives to promote awareness, and prevent fraud through education that empowers individuals. The Task Forces have developed hotlines, workshops, conferences, and advocacy sharing as an alert mechanism to new fraudulent product promotion. Media has been utilized to broaden awareness in the diverse communities served. Members of the Task Force Network include people living with HIV/AIDS, treatment advocates, community based organizations, health care practitioners, educators, federal and state government officials, and local health care departments.
- FDA, States Collaborate for Safety's Sake , FDA Consumer article describing the AIDS Fraud Task Forces and discussing their functions. (March 1996)
- US Network of AIDS Health Fraud Task Forces Empowers Communities to Make Informed Choices About Their Health Care, Poster presentation, 12th World AIDS Conference, June 28-July 3,1998
- ORA Health Fraud Contacts, April 4, 1999
- Buying Medical Products Online, a new FDA Web site to help you tell if a Web site that sells medical products is legitimate, what you should do before you buy medical products online. This site also contains a link to where you can report problem web sites.
- Operation Cure All Battle Internet Health Fraud, FDA has joined with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and others in a program aimed at stopping Internet scams that promote dietary supplements, devices, and other products as cures or treatments for HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. June 14, 2001.
Fraud Task Forces Web Pages
Dietary Supplements
- Information About Dietary Supplements from the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
- Adverse Event Reporting for Dietary Supplements -- Reporting Illness or Injury Associated With a Dietary Supplement to FDA
- An FDA Guide to Dietary Supplements, by Paula Kurtzweil, FDA Consumer, September/October 1998
- Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health web site providing information about the NIH, Office of Dietary Supplements, including its origins, programs and activities, and scientific resources.
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NIH, conducts and supports basic and applied research and training and disseminates information on complementary and alternative medicine to practitioners and the public.
- Food Labeling: Health Claims and Label Statements for Dietary Supplements; Strategy for Implementation of Pearson Court Decision. December 1, 1999. Pages 67289-67291 [FR Doc. 99-31122 ] [PDF version ] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is informing the public of its strategy to implement a recent court decision in Pearson v. Shalala (Pearson). The agency is taking this action to ensure that interested persons are aware of the steps it plans to follow to carry out the decision. FDA is also announcing how it plans to process petitions for dietary supplement health claims during the interim implementation period.
- U. S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, January 15, 1999, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, American Preventive Medical Association and Citizens for Health, Appellants v. Donna E. Shalala, Secretary, United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al., Appellees, instructs FDA to define the term "significant scientific agreement" for Health Claims on dietary supplement labels and to allow the use of disclaimers on labels.
- FDA alerted consumers not to purchase or consume products, some of which are labeled as dietary supplements, that contain Gamma Butyrolactone (abbreviated as GBL). FDA has also asked the companies that manufacture these products to voluntarily recall them. FDA has received reports of serious health problems -- some that are potentially life-threatening -- associated with the use of these products. January 21, 1999
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