Tuskegee Syphilis Study

"Tuskegee experiments" redirects here. For the album by Don Byron, see Tuskegee Experiments (album).

Tuskegee Syphilis Study
A doctor draws blood from one of the Tuskegee test subjects
Dates1932–1972
LocationsTuskegee, Alabama
FundingU.S. Public Health Service (PHS)

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male[1] (informally referred to as the Tuskegee Experiment or Tuskegee Syphilis Study) was a study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a group of nearly 400 African American men with syphilis.[2][3] The purpose of the study was to observe the effects of the disease when untreated, though by the end of the study medical advancements meant it was entirely treatable. The men were not informed of the nature of the experiment, and more than 100 died as a result.

The Public Health Service started the study in 1932 in collaboration with Tuskegee University (then the Tuskegee Institute), a historically Black college in Alabama. In the study, investigators enrolled 600 impoverished African-American sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama.[4] Of these men, 399 had latent syphilis, with a control group of 201 men who were not infected.[3] As an incentive for participation in the study, the men were promised free medical care. While the men were provided with both medical and mental care that they otherwise would not have received,[5] they were deceived by the PHS, who never informed them of their syphilis diagnosis[10] and provided disguised placebos, ineffective methods, and diagnostic procedures as treatment for "bad blood".[11]

The men were initially told that the experiment was only going to last six months, but it was extended to 40 years.[3] After funding for treatment was lost, the study was continued without informing the men that they would never be treated. None of the infected men were treated with penicillin despite the fact that, by 1947, the antibiotic was widely available and had become the standard treatment for syphilis.[12]

The study continued, under numerous Public Health Service supervisors, until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination on November 16 of that year.[13] By then, 28 patients had died directly from syphilis, 100 died from complications related to syphilis, 40 of the patients' wives were infected with syphilis, and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis.[14]

The 40-year Tuskegee Study was a major violation of ethical standards[12] and has been cited as "arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history."[15] Its revelation led to the 1979 Belmont Report and to the establishment of the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP)[16] and federal laws and regulations requiring institutional review boards for the protection of human subjects in studies. The OHRP manages this responsibility within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).[16] Its revelation has also been an important cause of distrust in medical science and the US government amongst African Americans.[15]

In 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized on behalf of the United States to victims of the study, calling it shameful and racist.[17] "What was done cannot be undone, but we can end the silence," he said. "We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye, and finally say, on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful and I am sorry."[17][18]

  1. ^
    • Newkirk, Vann R. II (June 17, 2016). "A Generation of Bad Blood". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2020. Known officially as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male ...
    • Baker, Shamim M.; Brawley, Otis W.; Marks, Leonard S. (June 2005). "Effects of untreated syphilis in the negro male, 1932 to 1972: a closure comes to the Tuskegee study, 2004" (PDF). Urology. 65 (6): 1259–62. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2004.10.023. PMID 15922414. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2020. The study was officially titled 'The Effects of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.'
    • "The Tuskegee Timeline". U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2020. It was called the 'Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.'
  2. ^ Brandt, Allan M. (December 1978). "Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study" (PDF). The Hastings Center Report. 8 (6). Garrison, New York: Wiley-Blackwell: 21–29. doi:10.2307/3561468. JSTOR 3561468. PMID 721302. S2CID 215820823. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "Tuskegee Study - Timeline". CDC - NCHHSTP. March 2, 2020. Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  4. ^ a b Reverby, Susan (2009). Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and its Legacy. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 30. ISBN 9780807833100.
  5. ^ Reverby, S.M. (1999). "Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Nurse Rivers, Silences, and the Meaning of Treatment" (PDF). Nursing History Review. 7: 3–28. doi:10.1891/1062-8061.7.1.3. PMID 10063364. S2CID 35965490.
  6. ^ Brown, DeNeen L. (May 16, 2017). "'You've got bad blood': The horror of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 13, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  7. ^ "Descendants of men in syphilis study emerging from shadows". al.com. Associated Press. May 10, 2017. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  8. ^ Heller, Jean (July 26, 1972). "Syphilis Victims in U.S. Study Went Untreated for 40 Years". The New York Times. Associated Press. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  9. ^ "AP WAS THERE: Black men untreated in Tuskegee Syphilis Study". AP News. May 10, 2017. Archived from the original on June 3, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  10. ^ [4][6][7][8][9]
  11. ^ Gray, Fred D. (1998). The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The Real Story and Beyond. Montgomery, Alabama: NewSouth Books. p. 76. ISBN 978-1579660123.
  12. ^ a b Duff-Brown, Beth (January 6, 2017). "The shameful legacy of Tuskegee syphilis study still impacts African-American men today". Stanford Health Policy. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  13. ^ Matt (November 15, 2012). "'I Didn't Want to Believe It': Lessons from Tuskegee 40 Years Later". Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona. Archived from the original on May 19, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  14. ^ Kim, Oliver J.; Magner, Lois N. (2018). A History of Medicine. Taylor & Francis. p. 138.
  15. ^ a b Katz, Ralph V.; Green, B. Lee; Kressin, Nancy R.; Kegeles, S. Stephen; Wang, Min Qi; James, Sherman A.; Russell, Stefanie L.; Claudio, Cristina; McCallum, Jan M. (November 1, 2008). "The legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: assessing its impact on willingness to participate in biomedical studies". Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. 19 (4): 1168–1180. doi:10.1353/hpu.0.0067. ISSN 1049-2089. PMC 2702151. PMID 19029744.
  16. ^ a b "Office for Human Research Protections". Department of Health and Human Services. September 28, 2008. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  17. ^ a b "Clinton Apologizes To Tuskegee Experiment Victims". CNN. May 16, 1997. Archived from the original on June 18, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  18. ^ "Remarks by the President Bill Clinton in Apology for the Study Done in Tuskegee".