U.S. Apologizes for Unethical Studies on Sexually Transmitted Diseases
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The United States apologized on Friday for unethical medical experiments 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 experiments, conducted between 1946 and 1948, were meant to determine if the administration of penicillin right after sex would be effective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases such as the potentially deadly disease syphilis.
The gonorrhea experiments 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.
For the study, the U.S. physician, Dr. John C. Cutler, along with his colleagues in Guatemala, intentionally let prostitutes, who were allowed to visit prisons legally in the country at the time, to spread sexually transmitted diseases to prisoners. The prostitutes either carried sexually transmitted diseases or had infectious agents placed on their cervixes if they had no sexually transmitted disease.
As very few people became infected, the researchers furthered their studies by inoculating infectious bacteria directly into soldiers and mental patients without telling them the risk they were going to face.
The researchers eventually discontinued the experiments because such studies did not yield much information. Dr. Cutler later went on to conduct another infamous experiment - the Tuskegee syphilis study in Alabama in which hundreds of African American men with late-stage syphilis were left untreated between 1932 and 1972.
These unethical studies were sponsored by the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health and the Pan American Health Sanitary Bureau and the Guatemalan government, according to Washington Post. Some high-ranking U.S. officials including Thomas Parran, jr, the U.S. surgeon general at the time, were aware of the studies.
Susan M. Reverby, professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts accidentally discovered these unethical experiments when she read papers in the University of Pittsburgh's Archives from Dr. Cutler. At the time she was investigating the Tuskegee study for a book.
Last spring, Professor Reverby revealed what she found to David Sencer, retired director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who then notified current CDC officials, leading to the official disclosure of these studies on Friday. A 29-age paper describing these tests is reportedly scheduled to appear in the journal of Policy History.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were quoted as saying in a joint statement "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."
After learning about these tests, President Barack Obama called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom to "personally express that apology", according to the Washington Post.
Officials are now worried that the disclosure of these unethical studies supported by the U.S government may become a reason for people not to participate in clinical trials at best, or even refuse to receive medical treatment at worst.
The Tuskegee study was said to have already been blamed over the years for the ever-increasing reluctance of the public to participate in medical research. For this and other reasons, pharmaceutical companies have conducted more and more trials in disadvantaged countries.
In response to the disclosure, NIH director Dr. Francis S. Collins condemned the experiments, and said strict rules are now in place to prevent anything similar from happening again.
"This case of unethical, human subject research represents an appalling example from a dark chapter in the history of medicine," Collins was quoted as telling reporters during a telephone briefing on Friday.
Some people blame the industry behind the scenes for unethical studies like this.
The Organic Consumers Association reported earlier that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from environmental safety advocates, decided in 2005 to drop a planned study referred to as CHEERS, which was to analyze the effect of household pesticides and other environmental pollutants on young children ages 0 to 3 years from low income families.
The consumer organization said the EPA received $2 million from the chemical industry and planned to do the study, even though prior study results have already been known.
The industry wants the results from a 2-year EPA study to show the public that these chemicals are safe. But according to the information provided by the consumer organization, many studies have already showed the chemicals to be tested in the EPA study can pose a health risk even though during a 2-year period, subjects would likely be asymptomatic.
The CHEERS project would have requested that a group of families with minors use products with the study chemicals. They would be given incentives, such as some money or T-shirts or other small gifts to encourage these families to participate in the study.
By Jimmy Downs and editing by Rachel Stockton
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