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U.S. Apologizes for Unethical Studies on Sexually Transmitted Disease

(This is a revised version with more information on the diseases added)
U.S. officials apologized on Friday for unethical medical studies that a federal doctor conducted 64 years ago among prisoners, soldiers and mental patients in Guatemala. The studies were conducted without the consent of the “participants.”

The studies, performed between 1946 and 1948, were meant to determine if use of penicillin right after sex would be effective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases such as the potentially deadly disease syphilis.

The gonorrhea studies involved 772 people, the chancroid experiments 142, and the syphilis experiments affected 497 people. In the syphilis studies, 427 subjects were infected and 332 treated, but only 85 were documented to have received full treatment; 71 people died during the studies....
Read entire article at Food Consumer