HLTB21H3 Lecture : Term 2 Notes
Document Summary
Tuskegee study: 399 poor black men all with latent syphilis. Cooperation obtained by offering financial incentives free burial service that they agreed to autopsy, free physical exams, incidental medications. Men not told they had syphilis, instead bad blood . Annually, doctor take blood pressure, listen to hearts, obtain blood sample, advice on diet to help with bad blood . Men not told they would be deprived of treatment for syphilis. Denied access to treatment for syphilis even after penicillin came into use in 1947. Left to degenerate under ravages of tertiary syphilis. 28 men died, 100 others dead of related complications, 40 wives infected, 19 children contracted disease at birth. document natural history of syphilis but came to symbolize racism in medicine, ethical misconduct in medical research, government abuse of most vulnerable- poor, uneducated. Syphilis, great pox from 1493 onward swept over eu and rest of world, china, india, japan.