Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The field of medicine has benefited tremendously from human research and experimentation. Yet, these advances have come at a cost. There have been many incidences in which individuals used in research studies were treated unfairly and harmed. One historic
- PDF / 43,178 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 16 Downloads / 198 Views
The field of medicine has benefited tremendously from human research and experimentation. Yet, these advances have come at a cost. There have been many incidences in which individuals used in research studies were treated unfairly and harmed. One historically relevant incident was called the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. This federally funded study was initiated in 1932 in Macon County, Alabama by the US Public Health Service to address the epidemic of syphilis. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum. Its symptoms often mimic other diseases making it hard to diagnose without a specific blood test. It can be passed from person to person through unprotected sexual relations and blood. The infection often goes unnoticed because symptoms can be dormant. Although syphilis is easily curable, the infection can cause significant problems if it remains untreated. There are three stages to the infection: primary, secondary, and late or latent stages. The primary stage is triggered by the presence of chancre sores. The secondary stage is reached when there is the presence of mild skin rashes and lesions on mucous membranes. The latent stage begins after the cessation of primary and secondary stage symptoms. In some individuals, the latent stage never ends. However, approximately 15 % of individuals with untreated syphilis will go onto develop late stage syphilis, which will bring additional health problems and may even be fatal. Problems may occur within the lymph glands, vital organs, bone structure or central nervous system. Untreated syphilis in its late stage can cause neurosyphilis, an infection of the central nervous system. Neurosyphilis can lead to symptoms such as blindness, confusion, numbness, paralysis, dementia and difficulties coordination muscle movements. Blood tests can be preformed to detect the bacterium that causes syphilis. However, testing of the spinal fluid is a prime indicator of neurosyphilis.
B. Daugherty-Brownrigg (*) John Carroll University, South Euclid, OH, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. Loue (ed.), Mental Health Practitioner’s Guide to HIV/AIDS, 423 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-5283-6_90, # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
424
B. Daugherty-Brownrigg
The only treatment for syphilis is penicillin or other antibiotics for individuals allergic to penicillin. Follow-up blood tests and lumbar punctures may be performed to monitor the progression of the infection and the effectiveness of the treatment. All of the study subjects in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study were poor Black sharecroppers. They were not told that they were the subjects in a natural history study of syphilis or that they were infected with syphilis. Instead, they were informed that they were to be treated for “bad blood,” a euphemism that referred to a variety of maladies including anemia, syphilis and others. The standard of care for syphilis at the time the study began, 1932, consisted of injections of arsenic and mercury for a period of 1 year. Later, following the discovery
Data Loading...
