Thread: US medical tests in Guatemala 'crime against humanity'

1 October 2010 Last updated at 22:14 ET

US medical tests in Guatemala 'crime against humanity'

• 2 October 2010

Media caption
President Alvaro Colom: '' I was upset and very angry''US testing that infected hundreds of Guatemalans with gonorrhoea and syphilis more than 60 years ago was a "crime against humanity", Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has said.

President Barack Obama has apologised for the medical tests, in which mentally ill patients and prisoners were infected without their consent.

Mr Obama told Mr Colom the 1940s-era experiments ran contrary to American values, Guatemala said.

The US has promised an investigation.

We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologise to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practicesStatement from US secretaries of state and health

'Shocking, tragic, reprehensible'

Syphilis can cause heart problems, blindness, mental illness and even death, and although the patients were treated it is not known how many recovered.

Evidence of the programme was unearthed by Prof Susan Reverby at Wellesley College. She says the Guatemalan government gave permission for the tests.

No offer of compensation has yet been made, but an investigation will be launched into the specifics of the study, which took place between 1946 and 1948.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday the news was "shocking, it's tragic, it's reprehensible".

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Colom said the test subjects were "victims of rights abuses".

Media caption
Professor Susan Reverby: ''They saw these subjects as soldiers in a war''"There's been a very strong reaction in the Guatemalan media and by my compatriots," he said.

"Of course, there may have been similar incidents in other countries around the world, but speaking as the president and a Guatemalan, I would have preferred that these events had never happened on this soil."

The joint statement from Mrs Clinton and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said: "Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health.

"We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologise to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."

In his phone call to President Colom, Barack Obama reaffirmed the United States' unwavering commitment to ensure that all human medical studies conducted today meet exacting US and international legal and ethical standards, the White House.

President Obama also "underscored the United States' deep respect for the people of Guatemala and the importance of our bilateral relationship".

Unaware


Image captionSyphilis can cause blindness, insanity and even death

The study by Prof Reverby shows that US government medical researchers infected almost 700 people in Guatemala with two sexually transmitted diseases.

The patients - prisoners and people suffering mental health problems - were unaware they were being experimented upon.

The doctors used prostitutes with syphilis to infect them, or inoculation, as they tried to determine whether penicillin could prevent syphilis, not just cure it.

The patients were then treated for the disease, but it is unclear whether everyone was cured.

Prof Reverby has previously done research on the Tuskegee experiment, where the US authorities measured the progress of syphilis in African-American sharecroppers without telling them they had the disease or adequately treating it.

The experiment ran from 1932 to 1972, with President Bill Clinton eventually apologising for it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-11457552

i wonder if the gutemalans are going to take to the streets over this act which was done right after WORLD WAR II .....

how do we know this is even legit ? this happened sooo long ago ....

Originally Posted by marquis

i wonder if the gutemalans are going to take to the streets over this act which was done right after WORLD WAR II .....

how do we know this is even legit ? this happened sooo long ago ....

The study is documented medical research. There are records of everything they did.

Research info @

http://www.wellesley.edu/WomenSt/fac_reverby.html

Susan M. Reverby's research on an immoral government medical study in Guatemala between 1946-48 where men and women were given syphilis has led to a U.S. government response from the Secretaries of the Departments of State and Health and Human Services. A copy of the synopsis and pre-copy edited version of her article,, 'Normal Exposure' and Inoculation Syphilis: A PHS 'Tuskegee' Doctor in Guatemala, 1946-48" in press with the Journal of Policy History, are available here.

Why did our own government just release this anti-American propaganda that nobody knew about before Hillary Clinton called Guatemala to apologize?

W

It looks like this info wasn't released to the public until Jan. 2010

Go to
http://www.wellesley.edu/WomenSt/fac_reverby.html

and click on
Reverby, Normal Exposure,

"Reverby, whose work was first reported by NBC News, made the discovery last year and gave a speech about it at a medical historians' meeting in May, which a U.S. health official heard. She provided her findings to the government the next month, resulting in Friday's apology, and has posted them on her website."

http://bit.ly/cfvYZS

To have access to prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala, the Guatemalan government would have had to provided access to the people in their prisons and menatl hospitals.

I believe this story because something similar happened right here in the US, only over a longer period of time as follows:

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment[1] (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.[1]

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 40-year study was controversial for reasons related to ethical standards, primarily because researchers failed to treat patients appropriately after the 1940s validation of penicillin as an effective cure for the disease. Revelation of study failures led to major changes in U.S. law and regulation on the protection of participants in clinical studies. Now studies require informed consent (with exceptions possible for U.S. Federal agencies which can be kept secret by Executive Order[2]), communication of diagnosis, and accurate reporting of test results.[3]

By 1947 penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis. Choices might have included treating all syphilitic subjects and closing the study, or splitting off a control group for testing with penicillin. Instead, the Tuskegee scientists continued the study, withholding penicillin and information about it from the patients. In addition, scientists prevented participants from accessing syphilis treatment programs available to others in the area. The study continued, under numerous supervisors, until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination. Victims included numerous men who died of syphilis, wives who contracted the disease, and children born with congenital syphilis.[4]

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, cited as "arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history,"[5] led to the 1979 Belmont Report and the establishment of the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP).[6] It also led to federal regulation requiring Institutional Review Boards for protection of human subjects in studies involving human subjects. The Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) manages this responsibility within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).[7]

No offer of compensation has yet been made, but an investigation will be launched into the specifics of the study, which took place between 1946 and 1948.

Truman was President! The Democrats are responsible, let them pay!