Excellent post Andrea! I was also appalled reading this case study on syphilis. In addition to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, we also have Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). The IRBs are responsible for reviewing studies to ensure ethical standards are met to protect patient rights (LoBiondo-Wood & Haber, 2014). In 1974 the National Research Act was created to require colleges, hospitals, and medical organizations to submit their application for review and approval on any proposed study. I have worked in a research study in the past and I remember that they were very strict. We had to be monitored and report frequently. Thankfully, these types of agencies are in place to guide health care professionals
Skloot discussed the Tuskegee Study and how a research project on hundreds of poor African-American men was conducted without proper informed consent and manipulative bribing. With what happened to the Lacks family, being so close to the “Tuskegee Experiment” era, the introduction of informed consent and federal regulations was making its way into becoming a bigger issue and necessity. Some argue heavily that there were not Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to hold hospitals and medical research accountable in their work. With ethics and principles absent, hospitals were doing what they were accustomed
In 1932, the Tuskegee Institute partnered with the Public Health Service in Alabama and began a research study on how certain infectious diseases spread through the population. They also studied what those diseases did inside the human body to cause them to pass away. Their study focused on 400 black men affected with Syphilis in a southern Alabama county. Out of which, no subjects were told of their condition. What this withhold of important information is a major violation by the International Review Board (IRB) standards. As a result of this omission of information, syphilis continued to spread through and fatally endanger the families and community that surrounded the 400 subjects. Those experiments on the illnesses of human subjects had many violations in the IRB Code of Ethics. For example, the omission of telling the patients of their condition was a breach of the Informed Consent protocol for the subjects. Also, the refusal of treatment for the men breaches the factors of
The fact that this study was to uncover the outcome of syphilis, justified that it was harming many individuals because it would later benefit America as a whole. Just because it was socially acceptable at the time, does not give them the right to conduct this study. There are ways that they could have run a similar study without violating the rights of the participants. For one, they could have designed the study that followed a universal code of ethics.
The doctors and the nurse were more interested in gathering scientific data than showing concern for these African men’s human rights. There was no concern for the ethical issues involving these victims. The syphilis scientific study was written about in medical journals for many years but community outrage did not happen until a reporter exposed the study to the general public. The scientific syphilis study ended after it was exposed to the public.
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The Tuskegee syphilis study involved 600 African American men. In this controversial study 399 had syphilis and 201 did not. This was a study conducted without any informed consent. They were intentionally misled to believe that they were being treated for “bad blood” a term they had come to recognize during this era. This deception allowed the test subjects to believe that they possibly had anemia and fatigue which was included with syphilis. During this study they were not permitted to receive any adequate treatment for the disease. They were never counseled on the intent or purpose of the study. Even after the penicillin was introduced as the cure drug for syphilis they were still denied proper treatment for the disease. In spite of the constant studies that favored treating syphilis even in the latest stages of the infection there was no consideration to try and eradicate this illness in the test subjects.
It is my firm belief that bureaucracy has a very small niche in the scientific community, and that the overregulation of field studies only proves to hinder the productivity of vital scientific explorations. One of the largest issues with organizations such as the REB and IRB is that they are formed by peoples whom are not experts in anthropology or any other sciences. For instance, Laurie Essig faced conflict from the IRB for not treating transgendered peoples as a vulnerable population. A vulnerable population defined by the IRB "includes prisoners, terminally ill persons, children, people with mental illness, and pregnant women." The IRB went on to inform Essig that she must "come up with a plan for dealing with "those people's mental illness"
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study of 1932 studied approximately six hundred twenty-five “disadvantaged rural black men” (Pozgar, 2016) that both had syphilis and did not have syphilis. This study, named "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013), was conducted by the Public Health Service from 1932 to 1972, however was only projected to last 6 months (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). The purpose of the study was to show the effects of untreated syphilis. The men involved were led to believe that were receiving treatment for their various conditions but were actually not receiving treatment. The men participating in the study were not informed of the purpose of the study or what treatments they were receiving. The study concluded in 1972 and began many more years of investigation and hearings on behalf of the participants that suffered during the trials.
From a sociological perspective, I do not think that hypothesis, “The rate of progression of Syphilis may differ by race when comparing African American males to Whites” is valid as is. Race is a social construct, however the experiences that which we go through because of race is very real. That leads me to believe the hypothesis could be valuable if it were framed differently. Because of environmental factors, cultural factors, and health disparites, certain races may be at risk for a particular disease than others. I feel that maybe if the hypothesis would have been framed as “The rate of progression of Syphilis may differ by race when comparing African American males who have (certain health problem) to Whites males who have (certain health problem)” it could have been valid. However, these men would have had to receive the same exact treatments and likely be from the same SES.
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I enjoyed reading your post on the case of the Syphilis outbreak. You did a great job of putting all the pieces together. You determined the frequency, and you created a pattern to determine the time, place, and those who were those infected. I agree with you that there potentially could be a large group of teens who could have interacted with those infected that have not yet been diagnosed. A good epidemiologist would gather all information necessary to determine how many could potentially be infected: “Epidemiologists typically revolve around gathering medical and health information from the field, researching data, analyzing the data collected, and presenting the findings” (Epidemiology Careers, n.d). You used all this information
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Although it is easily preventable, over 36,000 cases of syphilis are reported annually in the United States alone (“STD Facts-Syphilis” 2010). Treponema pallidum is the bacterium that causes syphilis. Being one of the most common STDs, syphilis is a bacterial sexually transmitted disease that acts quite differently from the other common STDs because it acts in stages. Fortunately, there are antibiotics to cure syphilis; however, there are not cures for the other health related problems that it causes.
What is Syphilis? And, how can you contract it? Syphilis is an STD (a sexually transmitted disease) that is highly contagious; due to the fact that many times it goes unnoticed. Syphilis is caused by the bacteria Treponema Pallidum and affects both females and males. Syphilis is spread by having vaginal, anal or oral sex and remains where you contracted it. Syphilis can also be spread from a pregnant mother to an unborn baby.
Sara, I enjoyed your discussion post. I link how you introduced the subject. Yes, I can imagine, as an emergency nurse patients are diagnosed in the emergency department can be an emotional roller coaster. After reflecting the article it makes me question is the physicians told these patients that had syphilis. Most time regardless of the diagnosis most individuals want treatment. It is great to see how far we have come the progress of research and nurses code of ethics. Like you discussed all medical fields are taught. It shocking to see that once penicillin was recognized as the drug of choice and successful at treating in the mid-1940s these individuals were not treated (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Once again,