Being in Guatemala has given me a plethora of new knowledge and a slew of reasons to not be patriotic, like this one:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/29/us-usa-guatemala-syphilis-idUSTRE77S3L120110829
Which details how the United States knowingly infected Guatemalan prisoners with STDS, including Gonorrhea and Syphilis.
"Some 1,300 people were infected with venereal disease, more than half of them with syphilis. They included inmates exposed to infected prostitutes brought into jails and male and female patients in a mental hospital. Some subjects had bacteria poured on scrapes made on their genitals, arms or faces.
The patients were given antibiotic penicillin to test its ability to cure or prevent syphilis, an infection that can cause genital sores and rashes and, if left untreated, damage internal organs and cause paralysis, blindness or death.
In one example of archived records cited at the meeting, Dr. Cutler noted that one of the mentally ill women he had infected with syphilis appeared to be dying. Still, the woman remained a study subject and was further infected with STDs before she developed grueling side effects and died.
'They thought, 'we're in a war against disease and in war soldiers die'... Those who are on the cutting edge of the science are the ones that can easily fall,' said Wellesley College professor Susan Reverby, whose research uncovered the records of the Guatemalan experiment."-Alina Selyukh
Dear USA, I get that this was in the 1940s and shit has changed (sort of) but seriously, what the hell.
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