There was a recent revelation that the United States of America participated in human studies on Guatemalans. The United States government has issued an apology for the experiments conducted, which infected Guatemalans with syphilis. The Guatemalans were infected with syphilis, the very same sexually transmitted disease in the Tuskegee studies which were conducted on hundreds of black people. There were 40 years of experiments and studies within the Tuskegee experiments. John C. Cutler carried out the Guatemalan tests for the two years that it ran, and several years of the Tuskegee program.
Guatemalan experiment was approved 1st
In the early 20th century, treatment for sexually transmitted disease was not as simple as today. Somebody infected can take a few hours and get a prescription. MSNBC reports that an analysis on syphilis was done by the Guatemalan government, the Pan American Health Sanitary Institute, the National Institute of Health and the United States of America Public Health Service, in 1946 before it was lawful to use penicillin. One man was in charge of the study. Dr. John Cutler was chosen. Male prisoners and female prisoners were amongst the 696 test subjects. Some were encouraged to catch the disease the typical way, and others were injected with the disease. The disease wasn’t treated in some. About a 3rd of the subjects did not get this treatment. The study then ended. This happened in 1948.
The studies for the Tuskegee syphilis
In American history, we try not to keep in mind the dark time of the Tuskegee Experiments. Between 1932 and 1972, African Americans were watched with the disease. They were then observed to determine what would happen. 399 of the subjects were from Alabama. They were also all male. The U.S. Public Health Service worked to make the exploration happen. It doesn’t like knowing it happened though. However, there is a slight difference. Tuskegee patients were already infected with syphilis, whereas the Guatemalan STD patients were not. Also, up to two thirds of the Guatemalan patients weren’t even treated for it. No Tuskegee patient ever received penicillin. Penicillin was the treatment used after 1947 hit. The experiment was done before 1972. That was the end of it.
Essential to make an apology
All those who see know how terrible the human experimentation really was. It is not something that can be excused ever. President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius all personally apologized to the Guatemalan individuals, based on Cable News Network. That is something like a start.
Citations
MSNBC
msnbc.msn.com/id/39456324/ns/health-sexual_health
CNN
cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/01/us.guatemala.apology/index.html?hpt=T1
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment
