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Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis at Tuskegee and Macon County, AL

In 1932, 399 African American men in Tuskegee and Macon County, Alabama were enrolled in a Public Health Service study on the long-term effects of untreated syphilis. At that time, there was no cure for syphilis, though many ineffective and often harmful treatments, such as arsenic, were used. In the 1940s, penicillin was discovered, and by the 1950s, it was widely accepted by the medical community as the quickest and most effective treatment for syphilis. The men in the study were not made aware of the availability of penicillin as treatment, however, and the study continued and was transferred to CDC along with the PHS VD Unit in 1957.

The study was intended to last only six months but continued into the 1970s. In 1968, Peter Buxton, a CDC Public Health Advisor in the USPHS, raised questions about the study. After several years of questioning by Mr. Buxton, several news articles were published, leading to a Senate investigation headed by Sen. Edward Kennedy. It was this investigation that forced the study’s end in 1972. CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acknowledged the study as unethical, ended it, and compensated study survivors for medical care and burial expenses.

President Clinton with the survivors at the White House

Shown above is a letter that then-CDC Director Dr. David J. Sencer wrote to the survivors of the U.S. Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis at Tuskegee and Macon County, AL explaining that they would receive medical care for the rest of their lives. Also on display is one of the benefits cards that was distributed, which reads, “To Serve Those Who Served,” as well as a photograph of President Clinton with the survivors at the White House, where on May 16th, 1997, he officially apologized to the last living participants.

Out of this tragedy came the Belmont Report, a comprehensive document that created new standards of research to protect participants from unethical practices.

For more information, including the names of the men in the study, please visit Voices for Our Fathers Legacy Foundation (voicesforfathers.org) and Tuskegee Study and Health Benefit Program – CDC – OS.

Enrichment Modules

Take a closer look:

What is syphilis and how does it spread? Learn more about syphilis and the bacterium that causes the disease, Treponema pallidum.
View a close-up image of Treponema pallidumunder a microscope and grimace at symptoms of syphilis symptoms on a human hand.
Learn more about gonorrhea and the bacterium that causes it, Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Explore CDC’s STD resources covering prevention initiatives, surveillance, treatment, training programs, and so much more.
Did you know human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S.? Learn more in this CDC Museum Public Health Academy Teen Newsletter.

From the source:

Meet Brandy Maddox, Health Scientist in the Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention at CDC.
Hear from a CDC expert about her path to public health and her work in adolescent sexual health at CDC in the CDC Museum Public Health Academy Teen Newsletter: September 2020 – Healthy Schools Zoom.
Keep up with the latest STD updates from CDC on Twitter and Facebook.
Did you know that there is a vaccine to protect against some strains of HPV that cause cancer? Learn more from the cervical cancer survivor in this video.
Listen to CDC experts talk about their paths to public health and their work with human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States in the CDC Museum Public Health Academy Teen Newsletter: January 2021 – HPV Zoom.

Then and now:

Learn more about incidence, prevalence, and cost of STIs over time in the U.S.
Read about CDC’s STD prevention success stories.
View a timeline of the Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee and learn how this study informed ethical data collection and changed research practices for good.
Explore the history of traveling and sexually transmitted diseases in this EID issue.
Learn about preventing antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea and CDC measures to combat antibiotic resistance across the U.S.
Contemplate the impact of the Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee on affected families.
Read about nurse Eunice Rivers, the nurse who worked on the Tuskegee Study.

Give it a try:

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3D print a model of a portion of human papillomavirus through the National Institutes of Health 3D Print Exchange.
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Know your status. Find a testing site near you.
Take a deep dive into human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States in the CDC Museum Public Health Academy Teen Newsletter: January 2021 – HPV.