Syphilis human experiments in Guatemala

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For the Guatemala syphilis experiments , prostitutes , soldiers , prisoners, and mentally disabled patients in Guatemala were deliberately infected with syphilis in a United States- funded program from 1946 to 1948 . The aim was to study the effects of penicillin .

According to information from Guatemala and the USA, a total of 2082 or 1308 people were infected with syphilis and / or other sexually transmitted diseases and treated 700 of them in the human experiment, at least 83 of the test subjects died (cause of death, however, not specified) according to the files in the following years. The lead was the United States Public Health Service doctor John Charles Cutler , who was later involved in the Tuskegee syphilis study , in which the course of untreated syphilis was observed.

The medical historian Susan M. Reverby brought the events in January 2010 to the public. On October 1, 2010, President Barack Obama apologized to the victims.

In January 2019, a judge ruled that the legal proceedings against the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb , the Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation for the compensation of 774 victims and victims' relatives, who were sued in 2015 for compensation in total, were ruled by a judge Filed $ 1 billion.

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Individual evidence

  1. Victims of American syphilis experiments fail in court spiegel.de, June 14, 2012, accessed January 5, 2019.
  2. US scientists 'knew Guatemala syphilis tests unethical' . BBC . August 30, 2011. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  3. Syphilis experiments cost more than 80 lives Spiegel Online , August 30, 2011
  4. a b Obama apologizes for attempts at syphilis. Spiegel online , October 2, 2010
  5. 'Normal Exposure' and Inoculation Syphilis: A PHS 'Tuskegee' Doctor in Guatemala, 1946-48 ( PDF file )
  6. Human experiments: pharmaceutical giant must answer orf.at, January 5, 2019, accessed January 5, 2019.