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History: U.S Performing Undisclosed STD Experiments on Foreign Countries

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by EGYPT, Oct 1, 2010.

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  1. EGYPT

    EGYPT Member

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    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39456324/ns/health-sexual_health


    U.S. government medical researchers intentionally infected hundreds of people in Guatemala, including institutionalized mental patients, with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge or permission more than 60 years ago.

    Many of those infected were encouraged to pass the infection onto others as part of the study.

    About one third of those who were infected never got adequate treatment.

    On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius offered extensive apologies for actions taken by the U.S. Public Health Service.

    "The sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was clearly unethical," according to the joint statement from Clinton and Sebelius. "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. We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."

    The apology was directed to Guatemala and to Hispanic residents of the United States, according to officials.

    A telebriefing with Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health and Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Affairs is expected Friday morning.

    The episode raises inevitable comparisons to the infamous Tuskegee experiment, the Alabama study where hundreds of African-American men were told they were being treated for syphilis, but in fact were denied treatment. That U.S. government study lasted from 1932 until press reports revealed it in 1972.

    The Guatemala experiments, which were conducted between 1946 and 1948, never provided any useful information and the records were hidden.

    They were discovered by Susan Reverby, a professor of women's studies at Wellesley College, and was posted on her website.

    According to Reverby’s report, the Guatemalan project was co-sponsored by the U.S. Public Health Service, the NIH, the Pan-American Health Sanitary Bureau (now the Pan American Health Organization) and the Guatemalan government. The experiments involved 696 subjects — male prisoners and female patients in the National Mental Health Hospital.

    The researchers were trying to determine whether the antibiotic penicillin could prevent early syphilis infection, not just cure it, Reverby writes. After the subjects were infected with the syphilis bacteria — through visits with prostitutes who had the disease and direct inoculations — Reverby notes that it is unclear whether they were later cured or given proper treatment.

    Reverby, who has written extensively about the Tuskegee experiments, found the evidence while conducting further research on the Alabama syphilis study.
     
    #1 EGYPT, Oct 1, 2010
  2. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    Weird this thread goes with no responses, but what is there to say? It's deplorable and indefensible.
     
    #2 JuanValdez, Oct 1, 2010
  3. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    agreed. Very disturbing, and given the history of this nation, we should know better.
     
    #3 FranchiseBlade, Oct 1, 2010
  4. Bandwagoner

    Bandwagoner Contributing Member

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    [​IMG]
     
    #4 Bandwagoner, Oct 1, 2010
  5. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    . . .yet it is not surprising

    Rocket River
     
    #5 Rocket River, Oct 1, 2010
  6. dmc89

    dmc89 Member

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    The Constant Gardener, a 2005 movie, talks about this issue. Just a contemptible thing to do.
     
    #6 dmc89, Oct 1, 2010
  7. Qball

    Qball Contributing Member

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    That's friggin sickening to read.

    CaseyH, hurts doesn't it? Hurts me also to hear it was us. It's ok man, let it go, being bitter won't help.
     
    #7 Qball, Oct 1, 2010
  8. bnb

    bnb Contributing Member

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    what's even more sickening is that it appears this wasn't just some rogue department or research group. WTF.
     
    #8 bnb, Oct 1, 2010
  9. AroundTheWorld

    AroundTheWorld 98er
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    Sickening if true, and those responsible should be brought to justice, if still alive.
     
    #9 AroundTheWorld, Oct 1, 2010
  10. trustme

    trustme Member

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    Sickening IF true? They said it happened. And I think that's the reason it's being revealed after so many years, so that the people involved couldn't be brought to justice because they are dead. Or maybe senile.

    I heard we introduced AIDS in Africa as well. True?
     
    #10 trustme, Oct 6, 2010
  11. AroundTheWorld

    AroundTheWorld 98er
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    Yeah, looks like it. Just sounds so absurd that it was hard to believe someone could plan something like this.
     
    #11 AroundTheWorld, Oct 6, 2010
  12. jo mama

    jo mama Contributing Member

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    we did similar stuff to our own citizens in this country. but they were black so it was ok.

     
    #12 jo mama, Oct 6, 2010
  13. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    I think they figured they could always cure the people they infected with penicilin, so it was no big deal. I can see people thinking this way. It requires some callousness but not as much as it would if they didn't think they could/would cure it.
     
    #13 JuanValdez, Oct 6, 2010
  14. da_juice

    da_juice Member

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    #14 da_juice, Oct 6, 2010
  15. EGYPT

    EGYPT Member

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    "many of those infected were encouraged to pass the sickness to others"


    that is the worse thing especialy being done to menatally challenged people and istea of curing them, you teach the that you should hurt others by giving them the disease.
     
    #15 EGYPT, Oct 6, 2010
  16. wnes

    wnes Contributing Member

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    Kinda agreed with JV. This is actually a child's play, compared to what Japan's Unit 731 did in WWII, where they performed vivisection, germ warfare, and other cruel experiments on live human beings.

    Interestingly though, the commander of Unit 731, Shiro Ishii, was never prosecuted for any war crimes. Rather, he received immunity from the U.S. and went on to work in Maryland to advise in bio-weapon research.
     
    #16 wnes, Oct 6, 2010
  17. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    This is a tangent but it is a problem that the Japanese were never fully held as accountable as the Germans where for their war time atrocities. At the same time it wouldn't surprise me if the Allied forces also didn't secretly use some of the German bio research conducted on concentration camp prisoners or have some of them the German scientists have advisers after the war.
     
    #17 rocketsjudoka, Oct 6, 2010
  18. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    I have never heard of this. What is the evidence for this?
     
    #18 rocketsjudoka, Oct 6, 2010
  19. trustme

    trustme Member

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    We don't know yet, but in 2060 the Secretary of State will offer his/her apologies for this. LOL jk. Well, it could be true. After reading this article, anything could be true. No one would have thought we would have done something like what we did in Guatemala and if anyone ever tried to accuse our govt for it, they would be labeled a conspiracy theorist and looked at as a crazy.

    I dono what to believe these days.
     
    #19 trustme, Oct 6, 2010
  20. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Contributing Member
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    Gaddafi or Kadafi or Quadaffiqui, or however he is spelling his name these days has been claiming this for a long time. Of course, he is bat **** crazy.
     
    #20 Ottomaton, Oct 6, 2010
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