Perspectives

Reaching for Harrison’s and the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis

Authors: Robert M. White, MD

Abstract

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis (TSUS) was the 1932–1972 study of approximately 600 Black men, 400 with active syphilis and 200 presumably without syphilis, in rural Macon County, Alabama. The study evolved from a one-evaluation datapoint to a longitudinal study with detailed case histories and autopsies. These parameters assessed the presence or absence of syphilis-related damage.1 It ended in scandal in 1972, as reported in the media.2
Posted in: Infectious Disease143

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