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The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: Carolinak12@Unc - Edu

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural African American men in Alabama. Researchers recruited 399 men with syphilis and 201 men without the disease, telling them they were receiving free health care from the government; however, they did not actually treat the men's syphilis. Even after penicillin became an effective treatment, the men were denied treatment so researchers could continue to study the long term effects of the disease. The study was exposed in 1972 and ended, leading to major reforms in medical ethics.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
72 views12 pages

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: Carolinak12@Unc - Edu

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural African American men in Alabama. Researchers recruited 399 men with syphilis and 201 men without the disease, telling them they were receiving free health care from the government; however, they did not actually treat the men's syphilis. Even after penicillin became an effective treatment, the men were denied treatment so researchers could continue to study the long term effects of the disease. The study was exposed in 1972 and ended, leading to major reforms in medical ethics.

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PPT Accompaniment for Carolina

K-12’s lesson

The Tuskegee
Syphilis
Experiment

To view this PDF as a projectable presentation, save the file,


click “View” in the top menu bar of the file, and select “Full
Screen Mode”

To request an editable PPT version of this presentation, send


a request to [email protected]
U.S. Public Health
Service begins
study on effects of
syphilis
› In 1932, the Public Health
Service, working with the
Tuskegee Institute, began a
study of the effects of
syphilis on the human body.
U.S. Public Health Service begins study on
effects of syphilis
› The 1932 study was called the "Tuskegee Study
of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male."
› The study initially involved 600 black male
volunteers – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not
have the disease.
› Government officials recruited African American participants in the
study by offering “free medical care” to them. They were also given
free meals and burial insurance.
› The men recruited were mostly poor sharecropper's from Macon
County, Alabama. (Macon County had a particularly high rate of
syphilis cases.) These men had difficult lives, hoeing small plots of
land, living in wooden shacks, and picking cotton in the season. There
was little wealth in Macon County and a very small chance of seeing
a doctor, even though syphilis was more rampant there than
anywhere else in the South.
› The men enrolled in the study were never told they had syphilis.
Instead, researchers kept this information from them and told the
patients that they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term
used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and
fatigue.
U.S. Public Health Service begins study on
effects of syphilis
› In truth, the 399 syphilitic patients did not receive what they signed up
for. They were never given the proper treatment needed to cure their
syphilis, since the government wanted to study untreated syphilis. The
doctors were also interested in whether the disease affected whites and
blacks differently.
› Each time they visited the doctors, the men thought their condition was
being treated and cured. Instead however, the “medicine” provided to
them was fake and contained no medicinal properties. The doctors and
nurses were not there to cure, but to observe the progress of untreated
syphilis.
› Although originally projected to last 6
months, the study actually went on for 40
years, the entire time the participants
assuming they were being treated. Instead,
the government was purposely letting their
disease progress for the study.
U.S. Public Health Service begins study on
effects of syphilis
› Patients who are untreated sometimes develop no symptoms,
and sometimes spontaneously recover; but they can also suffer
greatly. Rashes, skin growths, liver deformity, heart damage,
paralysis, insanity, and death are all possible outcomes of the
Syphilis rash on hand
untreated disease.
› Penicillin came into use in 1947, which could cure syphilis. Had penicillin been
administered to the syphilitic men in the study, many would have lead longer
and more comfortable lives. However, the government did not treat them.
› To ensure that the men would show up for a painful and potentially dangerous
spinal tap, the doctors misled them with a letter full of promotional hype: “Last
Chance for Special Free Treatment.”
› The fact that autopsies would eventually be required was also concealed. (It
was from the autopsies that the government would get their final data.)
› The experiment continued in spite of the Henderson Act (1943), a public health
law requiring testing and treatment for venereal disease, and in spite of the
World Health Organization's Declaration of Helsinki (1964), which specified that
“informed consent” was needed for experiments involving human beings.
› By the time the study was exposed in 1972, 28 men had died of syphilis, 100
others were dead of related complications, at least 40 wives had been infected
and 19 children had contracted the disease at birth.
Reconsider this poster.

• Considering what you have


now learned about Tuskegee,
does your interpretation of
this poster and its purpose
change? Explain.

• In what ways does the


message of this poster
contradict the actions of the
US Health Dept.?
The study becomes public
› The story finally broke in the Washington Star on July 25, 1972, in
an article by Jean Heller of the Associated Press. Her source was
Peter Buxtun, a former PHS venereal disease interviewer and one of
the few whistle blowers over the years.
› When the experiment was brought to the attention of the media in
1972, news anchor Harry Reasoner described it as an experiment
that “used human beings as laboratory animals in a long and
inefficient study of how long it takes syphilis to kill someone.”
› Many began to compare Tuskegee to the appalling experiments
performed by Nazi doctors on their Jewish victims during World
War II.
› The PHS, however, remained unrepentant, claiming the men had
been “volunteers” and “were always happy to see the doctors,” and
an Alabama state health officer who had been involved claimed
“somebody is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
› Under the glare of publicity, the government ended their
experiment, and for the first time provided the men with effective
medical treatment for syphilis.
The end of the study
› After the Tuskegee study became public, it caused
a public outcry that led the Assistant Secretary for
Health and Scientific Affairs to appoint an Ad Hoc
Advisory Panel to review the study.
› The panel had nine members from the fields of
medicine, law, religion, labor, education, health
administration, and public affairs.
› The panel found that the men had agreed freely to be examined and
treated. However, there was no evidence that researchers had informed
them of the study or its real purpose. In fact, the men had been misled
and had not been given all the facts required to provide informed
consent.
› The men were never given adequate treatment for their disease. Even
when penicillin became the drug of choice for syphilis in 1947,
researchers did not offer it to the subjects. The advisory panel found
nothing to show that subjects were ever given the choice of quitting the
study, even when this new, highly effective treatment became widely
used.
The end of the study
› The advisory panel concluded that the Tuskegee Study was "ethically
unjustified"--the knowledge gained was sparse when compared with the
risks the study posed for its subjects.
› In October 1972, the panel advised stopping the study at once. A month
later, the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs announced
the end of the Tuskegee Study.
› In "Tuskegee's" wake, major changes in
federal rules governing medical research
were established, including written informed
consent and the creation of institutional
review boards to oversee human subject
research.
› The study also created another legacy--it
became the metaphor for the distrust of
scientific research, the risks of government
provision of medical care, and the
exploitation of poor patients.
Ernest Hendon
Reparations
› In the summer of 1973, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the
study participants and their families. Fred Gray, a lawyer who had
previously defended Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, was the lead
attorney. In 1974, a $10 million out-of-court settlement was reached.
(This resulted in only around $37,000 for survivors.)
› As part of the settlement, the U.S. government promised to give lifetime
medical benefits and burial services to all living participants. The
Tuskegee Health Benefit Program (THBP) was established to provide these
services.
› In 1975, wives, widows and offspring were added to the program.
› In 1995, the program was expanded to include health as well as medical
benefits.
› It wasn’t until May, 1997 that the US government
acknowledged its wrong doing during the experiments
when President Bill Clinton issued a formal apology.
› The last study participant died in January 2004. The last
widow receiving benefits died in January 2009. As of
2009, there were 15 offspring receiving medical and
health benefits.
Sources
› http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtuskegee1.html
› http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-reverby/a-new-lesson-
from-the-old_b_378649.html
› http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/luna/servlet/detail/NLMNLM~1~1~101447
551~209482:The-duties-of-the-health-department

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