Washington, Aug 30 (ANI): Nearly 83 people died Guatemala after being forcibly infected with sexually transmitted diseases in US medical experiments done in the 1940s, it has emerged.
The commission investigating the program revealed that around 5,500 people were subjected to diagnostic testing, and over 1,300 were exposed to venereal diseases by contact or inoculations, the Telegraph reports.
"Within that group, we believe that there were 83 deaths," the paper quoted commission member Stephen Hauser, as saying.
"Among the 1,300 exposed to STDs, under 700 received some form of treatment as best as could be documented," Hauser added.
The Guatemalan study came to light in 2010 after Wellesley College professor Susan Reverby stumbled upon archived documents outlining the experiment led by controversial US doctor John Cutler, the paper said.
Cutler and his fellow researchers enrolled 1,500 people in Guatemala, including mental patients, for the study aimed to find out if penicillin could be used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
The researchers initially infected female Guatemalan commercial sex workers with gonorrhoea or syphilis, and then allowed them to have unprotected sex with soldiers or prison inmates, the paper said.
US President Barack Obama created the commission last year to investigate the matter, after news of the experiments came to light.
Obama personally apologized to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom in October before ordering a thorough review of what happened. (ANI)
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