Tuskegee Experiment

Tuskegee Experiment Beginning in 1932, and continuing for the next forty years, the U.S. government conducted tests "to determine the natural course of untreated syphilis in black males." (Brandt, 1978, p.1) The test used some 400 men already infected with syphilis as well as 200 without as a control and studied the effects of the disease on the subjects. However, even in the 1950's, when antibiotics became widely available, this treatment, as was all treatments, was denied to the subjects.

The experiment was re-approved by the Center for Disease Control in 1969 but in 1972 it became widely known to the public; which demanded the experiment be ended. In the early 1970's only 74 of the test subjects had survived while "perhaps more than 100 had died directly from advanced syphilitic lesions." (Brandt, 1978, p.1) But this experiment was not the first to perform such a study, in fact the Tuskegee Experiment was inspired by a similar experiment that took place in Oslo Sweden between 1980 and 1910.

The famous Oslo study of untreated syphilis was the brainchild of Professor Caesar Boeck of the Oslo Venereal Clinic. "From 1891 to 1910, Caesar Boeck…forbade the use of mercury in the treatment of the syphilis cases in his wards…." (Harrison, 1956, p.70) Boeck believed that the patient's own immune system had a better chance of fighting off the disease than did mercury treatments; which were the preferred treatment at the time.

Some 2000 Norwegian patients, both make and female of active sexual age, were involved and the experiment tested the effects of potassium iodide, mercury, and no treatment on the development of the disease.

In Boeck's own words his intention for the test was to "trace as many patients as possible to an 'end point,'…to collect a maximum amount of clinical data on each patient…and to determine the cause of death through study of post mortem examinations… and to examine as many living patients as possible…." (Harrison, 1956, p.72) This study was similar to the Tuskegee experiment performed some 20 years later except that in Tuskegee there was no treatment available to the patients and all the patients were black and not white Norwegians.

However, the same basic information was gathered, specifically the progress of the disease over time; up to and including the death of the patient. Just at the time Penicillin was being introduced to the world the U.S. was beginning a scientific study to examine the effects of penicillin and whether or not it could be used as not only a means of curing the infection but of avoiding it. In Guatemala, American Dr.

John Cutler, who would later go on to work with the Tuskegee experiment, from 1946 to 1948, used male prisoners to test the effects of antibiotics as a means of preventing venereal disease. But unlike either the Oslo or Tuskegee studies, the Guatemalan test purposely infected male prisoners with the diseases in order to conduct the study. Female prostitutes already infected with the diseases were allowed to visit uninfected prisoners in an attempt to infect them.

Although the exact numbers are difficult to ascertain, it is believed the numbers of male prisoners involved included "696 exposed to syphilis…722 to gonorrhea…and 142 to chancroid." ( Reverby, 2011, p.16) However, the use of antibiotics all but guaranteed that less than 5% of those involved actually died of the disease. While the Oslo study involved both Norwegian men and women, the Tuskegee experiment involved only black males.

Oslo was a retrospective study, meaning it studied patients who already had the disease, both Tuskegee and Guatemala involved patients who became infected and studied the progress of the disease. And while the Tuskegee subjects became infected on their own, in the case of Guatemala, the patients were purposely infected. The Guatemala test, like the Tuskegee one, only studied the effects on male subjects of a sexually active age, while the Oslo test used both males and females of sexually active age.

In terms of time frame, the Oslo test came first, ending in 1910 while the Tuskegee test ran from 1932 to the early 1970's, and the Guatemala experiment ran from 1946 to 1948, in.