U.S. Apologizes to Guatemala for Experimenting on Patients and Prisoners

The imminent publication of a study about how hundreds of prisoners, soldiers and mental hospital patients were used as human guinea pigs has prompted the U.S. government to apologize to Guatemala, the country in which the experiment was carried out between 1946 and 1948. U.S. Public Health Service doctors infected 696 Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea to study the effects of the venereal diseases and how penicillin might cure them, according to a study by Susan Reverby, a professor at the University of Wellesley.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made a public apology for the experiments. In a joint statement, Clinton and Sebelius acknowledged, “the sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was clearly unethical.” “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.” The Secretaries of State and Health concluded, “we deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices.”

The aim of the study, which was never published, was to find new ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases — gonorrhea, syphilis, chancroid or soft chancre — and occurred at a time when penicillin was still relatively new. The U.S. government needed to find out if this antibiotic was effective and, in addition to curing, could prevent syphilis.

In the experiments carried out in Guatemala, prostitutes with gonorrhea or syphilis were used to infect prisoners or mental hospital patients. However, when it was confirmed that very few men had become infected, these human guinea pigs were infected by injecting the syphilis virus directly into the penis, arm or face. Those who worked in the medical institutions and penitentiaries where the tests took place were aware of the experiment, but the actual subjects of the study were never informed of its purpose, nor did they give their consent.

According to Professor Reverby’s study, the majority of those infected were given penicillin after contracting the disease, although it is unknown whether anyone was cured or received proper treatment. At least one patient died during the tests, but it is not clear if the death was due to the disease or other medical problems. One of the U.S. doctors who was part of the Guatemala experiment was John Cutler, a PHS employee and researcher in the tragic and infamous Tuskegee project. This experiment, carried out in the 1970s, consisted of denying treatment to hundreds of black citizens in Alabama who already had syphilis so that doctors could see the disease’s development and draw conclusions.

The experiment in Guatemala was uncovered a few months ago by Professor Reverby, while she was researching for a book about Tuskegee. In a style uncommon among researchers, she informed the U.S. government before publishing her findings.

Yesterday, the President of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, defined the experiments as “crimes against humanity,” and announced that he is looking into seeking compensation for the victims.