Guatemala STD experiments echo Tuskegee experiments

There was a recent revelation made. The United States of America government participated in human tests on unwilling Guatemalans. It was found only just lately after 60 years of being hidden. The American government has issued an apology to Guatemala. Those studies bring up an episode from our past. The Tuskegee tests used hundreds of African American men, infected with syphilis, the exact same sexually transmitted disease studied in Guatemala. The Tuskegee experiments ran for 40 years. John C. Cutler carried out the Guatemalan studies for the two years that it ran, and several years of the Tuskegee program.

1st acquired authorization to do the Guatemalan experiment

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 a study on syphilis was done by the Guatemalan government, the Pan American Health Sanitary Institute, the National Institute of Health and the U.S. 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. Up to a third of the subjects weren’t even treated for the disease. In 1948, the study stopped.

What tests were completed with the Tuskegee syphilis

Hardly anybody knows about the Tuskegee Tests. That is because American is ashamed of that part of history. From 1932 to 1972, African Americans from the South were observed to determine the effects of the disease. From Alabama there were 399 male subjects. The U.S. Public Health Service was responsible for the analysis. However, there’s a slight difference. Tuskegee patients were already infected with syphilis, whereas the Guatemalan STD patients weren’t. Treatments weren’t given to two thirds of the Guatemalan patients. This is another difference. The Tuskegee patients did not get penicillin as treatment. 1947 was when penicillin begun getting used. It wasn’t before then. The experiment ran until 1972.

Essential to make an apology

All those who see know how terrible the human experimentation really was. It isn’t something that could be excused ever. Apologies to the Guatemalan people flooded in. These came from Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and President Obama. That should only be the beginning. There is more to repay.

Articles cited

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