U.S. apologizes for newly revealed syphilis experiments done in Guatemala

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 1, 2010

The United States issued an unusual apology Friday to Guatemala for conducting experiments in the 1940s in which doctors infected soldiers, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The experiments, conducted by a physician who was later involved in the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study in Alabama, involved a total of 696 men and women who were drafted into studies aimed at determining the effectiveness of penicillin.

"The sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was clearly unethical," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a joint statement.

"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 statement said.

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