GUATEMALA CITY — An investigation by Guatemalan authorities has identified about 1,300 people who may have been unwittingly involved in a 1940s U.S. syphilis experiment, a few of whom may still be living, Vice President Rafael Espada said Wednesday.
Records uncovered in the United States in 2010 suggested that researchers in the program in the 1940s attempted to infect about 700 prostitutes, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis. About 770 tests subjects, including soldiers, were exposed to gonorrhea.
Patients were treated with penicillin. Among the goals of the research was to see how well differing dosages of penicillin worked against different venereal diseases. Espada said about 10 American and 12 Guatemalan doctors were part if the two-year study. Denver Post wire services
