Guatemala syphilis experiment
Guatemala syphilis experiment, American medical research project that lasted from 1946 to 1948 and is known for its unethical experimentation on vulnerable human populations in Guatemala. The intent of the study was to test the value of different medications, including the antibiotic penicillin and the arsenical agent orvus-mapharsen, in the prevention of symptom emergence following infection with certain sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). A diagnostic testing arm of the study investigated methods to refine STD screening techniques. The total study population included more than 5,500 Guatemalan prisoners, sex workers, soldiers, children, and psychiatric patients, about one-quarter of whom were deliberately infected with syphilis, gonorrhea, or chancroid and all of whom were enrolled in the experiments without their consent.
Basis for the experiments
At the start of World War II, U.S. medical researchers were tasked with finding an effective strategy for preventing the contraction of STDs among soldiers who consorted with prostitutes. The first such strategy emerged in the early 1940s, when government scientists discovered that penicillin could eliminate symptoms of syphilis within days of infection. The U.S. military subsequently began using penicillin as a means of post-STD-exposure treatment. However, it was unclear whether penicillin provided long-term prophylactic protection and whether it could be used in a similar manner for other STDs. In addition, its supplies were limited, and scientists were interested in testing the prophylactic ability of other agents, including orvus-mapharsen, which could be applied as a foaming wash following exposure. Hence, the Guatemala study was proposed.
Study design
The Guatemala experiments were designed based on the Terre Haute prison experiments of 1943–44, which were carried out in consenting prisoners at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Intended to test preventative strategies for gonorrhea, the Terre Haute study ultimately failed to meet its goals because of difficulties with establishing the infection in subjects. As a result, testing different inoculation methods for gonorrhea, syphilis, and chancroid formed a major part of the Guatemala experiments. Among the most controversial methods used was “normal exposure,” in which sex workers infected with syphilis were used to transmit the disease to unsuspecting prisoners.
Much of the diagnostic and laboratory work was carried out at a 300-bed hospital in Guatemala City that had been built specifically for the study. The city was chosen as the study site in part because it housed a relatively large population of prisoners and other potential test subjects. Directing the research was United States Public Health Service (USPHS) scientist John C. Cutler, who had been involved in the Terre Haute study and who later was one of the leaders of the Tuskegee syphilis study. Cutler and USPHS colleagues collaborated with local Guatemalan physicians and were granted access to public health centres, government hospitals, mental institutions, and orphanages as a result of negotiations between the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (PASB; now Pan American Health Organization) and the Guatemalan government.
Approximately 1,308 soldiers, prisoners, sex workers, and psychiatric patients, ranging from age 10 to 72, were intentionally exposed to STDs during the study. Syphilis exposure occurred through inoculation of the cervix in sex workers; through injection or direct sexual contact with infected sex workers in prisoners; and through injection, inoculation (via abrasion) of the penis, cisternal puncture (the insertion of a needle below the occipital bone at the back of the skull to access cerebrospinal fluid), or oral ingestion in psychiatric patients. Exposure to gonorrhea was carried out in sex workers through cervical inoculation and in Guatemalan soldiers through sexual contact with the sex workers and sometimes through urethral inoculation; psychiatric patients were infected through inoculation of the urethra, rectum, or eyes. Chancroid was transmitted to Guatemalan soldiers and psychiatric patients through abrasion and rubbing of inoculum into the skin on the arms or back.
Serology testing, in which blood and spinal fluid samples were collected for the detection of antibodies and microorganisms indicative of infection, was performed in 5,128 subjects (some of whom were involved in the intentional infection arm of the study). Subjects included children as young as one year, persons with leprosy, psychiatric patients, and personnel stationed at the U.S. Air Force base in Guatemala. This phase of the research, intended to refine diagnostic techniques for STDs, lasted until 1953.
As a measure of “goodwill” toward the Guatemalan government but also to promote the prophylaxis study, Cutler initiated an STD treatment program. About 820 subjects received some form of treatment for their infections; more than 650 of these individuals were in the deliberate exposure group.
