Post by Tamrin on Oct 4, 2010 9:09:46 GMT 10
Currently making the news is US President Obama's apology for the US having deliberately infected hundreds of people in Guatemala with Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the 1940s. What is important to bear-in-mind is that this was only part of a wider study, in which the US also experimented on many of its own, already disadvantaged, citizens up until 1972 (only then curtailed because of a whistle blower), denying them available, effective cures and simply monitoring the progress of the disease until they died. One thing to come out of the experiment is an enduring distrust of public health officials by US minorities.
For a still wider perspective, see: Human experimentation in the United States.
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment (also known as the Tuskegee syphilis study or Public Health Service syphilis study) was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, by the U.S. Public Health Service. Investigators recruited 399 impoverished African-American sharecroppers with syphilis for research related to the natural progression of the untreated disease.
The Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began the study in 1932. Nearly 400 poor black men with syphilis from Macon County, Ala., were enrolled in the study. For participating in the study, the men were given free medical exams, free meals and free burial insurance. They were never told they had syphilis, nor were they ever treated for it. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue.
The Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began the study in 1932. Nearly 400 poor black men with syphilis from Macon County, Ala., were enrolled in the study. For participating in the study, the men were given free medical exams, free meals and free burial insurance. They were never told they had syphilis, nor were they ever treated for it. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue.
For a still wider perspective, see: Human experimentation in the United States.