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A vulture flies behind a tomb at Guatemala City's main cemetery Rodrigo Abd/AP/Press Association Images

Shocking US experiments on Guatemalans revealed

The experiments took place in the 1940s and included people being injected with syphilis and other illnesses, by what were described as “unethical” researchers.

NEW DETAILS OF US medical experiments carried out on people in Guatemala in the 1940s have been revealed.

Members of a presidential panel that released the information said it shows that the researchers were unusually unethical, even when placed into the context of a different era.

The experiments were carried out from 1946 – 48 when the US Public Health Service and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau worked with a number of Guatemalan government agencies to do medical research paid for by the US government.

These experiments involved deliberately exposing people to sexually transmitted diseases, in an apparent attempt to see if penicillin – then a relatively new discovery – could prevent infections in them.

It is believed 1,300 people, including soldiers, prostitutes, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis, were infected, and only about 700 of them received treatment of some sort.

Also, 83 people died, although it’s not clear if the deaths were directly due to the experiments.

The research came up with no useful medical information, according to some experts, and was hidden for decades until it came to light last year.

It was uncovered after a Wellesley College medical historian discovered records among the papers of Dr John Cutler, who led the experiments.

President Barack Obama called Guatemala’s president, Alvaro Colom, to apologise.

A report by Obama’s bioethics commission to review the Guatemala experiments is due next month.

Commission members discussed some of the findings at a meeting Monday in Washington, which revealed that some of the experiments were more shocking than was previously known.

For example, seven women with epilepsy, who were housed at Guatemala’s Asilo de Alienados (Home for the Insane), were injected with syphilis below the back of the skull, a risky procedure.

The researchers thought the new infection might somehow help cure epilepsy but the women each got bacterial meningitis, probably as a result of the unsterile injections. They were treated for the meningitis.

A female syphilis patient with an undisclosed terminal illness was infected with gonorrhea in her eyes and elsewhere by researchers who wanted to see what the impact of an additional infection would be.

Six months later she died. Dr Amy Gutmann, head of the commission, described the case as “chillingly egregious.”

During that time, other researchers were also using people as human guinea pigs but panel members concluded that the Guatemala research was bad even by the standards of the time.

The Guatemalan participants — or many of them — received no explanations and did not give informed consent, the commission said.

The commission is working on a second report examining federally funded international studies to make sure current research is being done ethically.

Meanwhile, the Guatemalan government has vowed to do its own investigation into the Cutler study.

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10 Comments
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    Mute Aidan Boran
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:13 PM

    best treatment is whiskey and sand.

    Massage one or two shots of whiskey, then add handful of sand to the scalp….

    nits get drunk and kill each other throwing stones…

    472
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    Mute The Girl
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:16 PM

    @Aidan Boran: Really? Must try that…but then why waste whisky?

    21
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    Mute Patabake Kennedy
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    Feb 8th 2018, 12:51 AM

    @Aidan Boran: May only apply to Irish Lice.

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    Mute Margaret O Neill
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    Feb 8th 2018, 3:31 PM

    @Aidan Boran: best laugh I’ve had in weeks. Thanks Aidan

    8
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    Mute Boutros Boutros-Ghali
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:07 PM

    I might be nitpicking, but I don’t think you’re meant to smoke while you treat your children’s scalps. Lousy carry on.

    315
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Feb 8th 2018, 2:49 AM

    All done, just need a candle to read the small print…

    23
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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:37 PM

    30 years ago this was an issue too.. although, 30 yesterday ago, head lice cream had plutonium in it.

    17
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    Mute Boutros Boutros-Ghali
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:42 PM

    @Peter Cavey: Lice cream and jelly

    23
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    Mute Andy K
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    Feb 8th 2018, 6:53 AM

    @Peter Cavey: It just got rid of all the hair then? I guess that’s one way to be live free.

    5
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    Mute Dean Anderson
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    Feb 8th 2018, 6:18 AM

    “Is there anything you can prescribe doctor?” –Homer Simpson
    “Fire &lots of it.” – Dr Hibbert
    “Oh, that’s your cure for everything ” – Marge Simpson

    14
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    Mute
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:40 PM

    What are vegans thoughts on killing these little creatures…

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    Mute Boutros Boutros-Ghali
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:41 PM

    @: I think they go for clean hair, so they’re not typically a worry for vegans.

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    Mute Jackie Carvill Caruana
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    Feb 8th 2018, 7:46 AM

    @Boutros Boutros-Ghali: I’ve always heard that head lice love clean hair. Do vegans have clean hair in general? The ones I know don’t!

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    Mute Desmodromic
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    Feb 8th 2018, 2:11 PM

    We see what you did there – sneaky!

    1
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    Mute Sean
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    Feb 8th 2018, 8:33 AM

    I saw a girls hair go on fire in a church once. It was heavily lacquered and the fire took hold instantly. An unlikely but quick witted hero took off his jacket and threw it over her head smothering out the flames. But for him she would have been in serious trouble because the rest of us were just standing there mouths agape.

    14
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    Mute JJ
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    Feb 8th 2018, 11:10 AM

    I was at a bonfire once. Was deadly.

    6
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    Mute Tomas
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:07 PM

    Fecking fire flea’s ffs

    14
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    Mute Marie Okeeffe
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    Feb 8th 2018, 4:59 PM

    Tea tree oil the best treatment for them and its natural

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    Mute Michael Wynne
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    Feb 7th 2018, 11:18 PM

    Well I think that’ll kill the little f***ers for sure

    28
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