US apologizes for purposely infecting people in Guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases

The United States apologized Friday for a 1946-1948 research study that purposely infected people in Guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases.
A statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the action "reprehensible."
Clinton called Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Thursday night to inform him, said Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela.
"They were obviously concerned about this information. They were saddened by it," Valenzuela said in a telephone news conference Friday.
The study came to light recently when Wellesley College researcher Susan Reverby found the archived but unpublished notes from the project.
The scientific investigation, called the U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Disease Inoculation Study of 1946-1948, aimed to gauge the effectiveness of penicillin to treat syphilis, gonorrhea and chancres. Penicillin was a relatively new drug at the time.
The tests were carried out on female commercial sex workers, prisoners in the national penitentiary, patients in the national mental hospital and soldiers. According to the study, more than 1,600 people were infected: 696 with syphilis, 772 with gonorrhea and 142 with chancres.
A similar study was conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, on nearly 400 poor African-American men with syphilis whose disease was allowed to progress without treatment. The subjects were not told they were ill with the disease.
The Guatemala study was done under the direction of U.S. Public Health Service physician John C. Cutler, who later ran the Tuskegee experiment, said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes for Health.
Collins, who called the Guatemala study "a dark chapter in the history of medicine," spoke at the same teleconference in which Valenzuela made his remarks.
Clinton and Sebelius said the United States is launching an investigation and also convening a group of international experts to review and report on the most effective methods to make sure all human medical research worldwide meets rigorous ethical standards.

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[CadaverousWound]

I like how they play in off. All I heard was, "It's okay, that was the 40's; the wild west crazy thing were done but it's okay because everyone get in that 'curious' stage of development." By that easy going logic, Nazi Germany was in the clear for their human experimentation as well, as it was also in the 40's.

[candyazz28]

@RapIsDeadly Man, with people who think like you no wonder why the world is as fucked up as it is now. I understand how you feel about criminals, but how the fuck can you take the side of an criminally insane doctor doing human experiments. This is the shit of horror films. If you saw a movie that had the doctor doing what he did, but in the movie, then you would be horrified. You'd have to be a zombie of society not to feel anything for people outside your race.

[skibbieshits]

fuck you to the government

[xlla]

it does not happen now???

they would never get away with it now???

She sounds very reassured!?!?

[ranaparaiso]

as a guatemalan i never really like the usa, why? simple they think they can go anywhere in the world and do whatever they want, they send all those young people to stupid wars and when they come back fuck them.... how come the usa doesnt let hard workin people to stay so they can have a better life, I JUST WONDER NOW WHO IS GONNA TAKE THE USA TO THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL AND SUE THEM FOR THOSE CRIMES AGAINS HUMANITY????????? CAN ANYONE ANSWER THAT....................

[94civiclxgrey]

WTF I am really starting to see that the government is a bunch of fuck'n douche bags........

[wapnashki]

USA = HITLERS GERMANY!? NOOOO...USA LOT WORSE!!

[ed11561]

Sure there are standards today-BULLSHIT!!!

[buntus00]

Note the wording: " We 'REGRET' that it happened. Huh? Typical non-apology.

We regret it =shame that it happened, but pah!, we're not REALLY sorry.

-Go on, say it: We're sorry. C'mon. Let's hear you say it properly.

Ok.

"Uh, we -we-uh- are- uh, we- are- we're SOH- SOH- SOR--we're SOH- SOHR-R, we -we are....duh....No, sorry, can't do it.

We- REGRET that it happened. See? There. We done it.

[mrchrmedone]

well like the u.s gave diseases to guatemalans. now the u.,s should give them amnesty to this people. so they can work and have a better life.,, isnt itn FAIR!!

[boghosian]

Wow I can't believe tihs was on the bull shit media!!!! Wow amazing