News Americas, GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, Tues. Aug. 30, 2011: Over six dozen Guatemalans were deliberately infected by US government scientists with syphilis and gonorrhea in the 1940s.
That’s according to the latest conclusion of a presidential commission in Washington. The Commission for the study of Bioethical Issues said some 5,500 Guatemalans were involved in all the research that took place between 1946 and 1948 but 83 did not consent.
Of these, some 1,300 were deliberately infected with syphilis, gonorrhea or another sexually transmitted disease, chancroid.
And of that group only approximately 700 received some sort of treatment.
Amy Gutmann, who heads the commission, called the research a “shameful piece of medical history.”
President Obama set up the commission when the research first came to light last year. He also apologized to his Guatemalan counterpart, Alvaro Colom, saying the acts ran contrary to American values.
