Syphilis and human experimentation from World War II to the present: a historical perspective and reflections on ethics

• Published in: Actas dermo-sifiliográficas (English ed.) 2014-11, Vol.105 (9), p.847
• Main Authors: Cuerda-Galindo, E, Sierra-Valenti, X, González-López, E, López-Muñoz, F
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; spa
• Subjects: Academies and Institutes - history; Adult; Alabama; Black or African American; Black People; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. - history; Female; Guatemala; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Human Experimentation - ethics; Human Experimentation - history; Humans; Informed Consent; International Cooperation; Male; Mentally Ill Persons; Military Personnel; Penicillin G - history; Penicillin G - therapeutic use; Prisoners; Sex Workers; Syphilis - drug therapy; Syphilis - history; Syphilis - transmission; United States; United States Public Health Service - history; Withholding Treatment - ethics
• ISSN: 1578-2190; 1578-2190; 2173-5778
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ad.2013.08.012

Even after the Nuremberg code was published, research on syphilis often continued to fall far short of ethical standards. We review post-World War II research on this disease, focusing on the work carried out in Guatemala and Tuskegee. Over a thousand adults were deliberately inoculated with infectious material for syphilis, chancroid, and gonorrhea between 1946 and 1948 in Guatemala, and thousands of serologies were performed in individuals belonging to indigenous populations or sheltered in orphanages. The Tuskegee syphilis study, conducted by the US Public Health Service, took place between 1932 and 1972 with the aim of following the natural history of the disease when left untreated. The subjects belonged to a rural black population and the study was not halted when effective treatment for syphilis became available in 1945.