1.This Ordinance may be cited as the Venereal Disease Ordinance.

2.

(1) In any part of Sri Lanka to which the provisions of this section apply, no person other than- (a) a registered medical practitioner; or (b) a practitioner of ayurvedic medicine who has been specially thereto authorized in writing by the Minister,

shall, for reward either direct or indirect, treat any person for venereal disease or prescribe any remedy therefor or give any advice in connexion with the treatment thereof, whether the advice is given to the person treated or to any other person.

(2) The Minister may by Order published in the Gazette, direct that the provisions of this section shall apply to the whole or any specified part of Sri Lanka.*(*Made applicable to the whole of Sri Lanka-Gazette No. 9,047 of 71h December, 1942.)

3.

(1) No person shall by advertisement or any public notice or announcement treat or offer to treat any person for venereal disease, or prescribe or offer to prescribe any remedy therefor, or offer to give or give any advice in connexion with the treatment thereof.

(2) No person shall hold out or recommend to the public by any notice or advertisement, or by any written or printed papers or handbills, or by any label or words written or printed affixed to or delivered with, any packet, box, bottle, phial, or other enclosure containing the same, any pills, capsules, powders, lozenges, tinctures, potions, cordials, electuaries, plaisters, unguents, salves, ointments, drops, lotions, oils, spirits, medicated herbs and waters, chemical and officinal preparations whatsoever, to be used or applied externally or internally as medicines or medicaments for the prevention, cure, or relief of any venereal disease:

Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to any advertisement, notification, announcement, recommendation, or holding out made or published by any person with the sanction in writing of the Minister, or to any publication sent only to registered medical practitioners or to wholesale or retail chemists for the purposes of their business.

4. Any person who does any act in contravention of any of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees or to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

5. In this Ordinance, unless the context interpretation. otherwise requires-

"ayurvedic medicine" includes the systems of medicine known as Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani;

"registered medical practitioner" means a person registered as a medical practitioner under the Medical Ordinance ;

"venereal disease" means syphilis, gonorrhoea or soft chancre and includes any complication of any such disease.