Between 1946 and 1948, the United States Public Health Service and the PanAmerican Sanitary Office, in cooperation with public health officials of the Guatemalan government, conducted a study on the use of penicillin as a possible prophylaxis for syphilis, gonorrhea and cancer. The "subjects" of the study (prisoners, mental patients and Guatemalan soldiers) were inoculated with these diseases and also acquired them through contact with infected prostitutes. The fraud was part of the study and ethical abuses were discussed at the US Public Health service. The study results were not published.
Syphilis; Guatemala; public health; study; penicillin