The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

From 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service funded a study looking at the progress of untreated syphilis. The researchers recruited 616 African American men, 414 of who had the disease. The participants were never explained the true nature of the study. Not only were the syphilitics among them not treated for the disease -- a key aspect of the study design that was retained even after 1943 when penicillin became available as a safe, highly effective cure -- but those few who recognized their condition and attempted to seek help from PHS syphilis treament clinics were prevented from doing so.