Currently, sexually transmitted diseases are at epidemically high levels in the United States. Just like in 16th century Europe, where syphilis was an epidemic, long before penicillin was mined. Initially, syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, was treated with toxic mercury, hence the famous saying: "A night with Venus, a life with Mercury." (Wise). Syphilis was an incurable disease. As a result, medical records about the disease were inaccurate and unreliable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay This had been called by the British and Germans 'the French disease' and by the French 'the Neapolitan disease'. However, it is now remembered as a horror committed by the United States government towards the black African American male population of Tuskegee. The program began with a hopeful goal: to justify treatment programs for African Americans infected with syphilis. A public health department-sponsored study to identify Southern counties with the highest rates of syphilis among African-American men. In 1929, the Rosenwald Fund, an organization that promoted education and health care for poor African Americans, began aggressive mercury treatment. “The cure rate is less than thirty percent; treatment takes months and the side effects are toxic, sometimes fatal.” That same year, economic depression hit until the Rosenwald Organization was finally forced to cut its funds. In 1932, in a follow-up effort, the Public Health Department and the Tuskegee Institute collaborated to launch a study of six hundred poorly informed African American participants, 399 of whom had already contracted the disease. The study was only supported if Tuskegee got credit "and if black professionals were involved." This is also why Dr. Dibble and Nurse Rivers were assigned to the study. Participants were informed that they were being treated for “bad blood” (CDC), a general term at the time for many venereal diseases such as gonorrhea, genital herpes, and genital herpes. Chlamydia. “In exchange for their participation, the men received free medical exams, free meals and burial insurance. » It is important to note that the majority of participants were farmers and did not have access to free insurance and medical exams before the study. Those who already had syphilis were never informed that they already had it, this certainly caused their spouses (and other sexual partners) to catch the disease, which led to its exponential growth in the within the population. Initially, the study was supposed to last six months, but it continued for up to a year, then extended whenever there was a major breakthrough, causing the study to last forty years! To add to the horror, in fact, the men were never treated. Basically, they were getting sicker and sicker and even dying. Researchers were to observe and study syphilis, not treat it, by simply studying the effects of syphilis. The first article was published in 1934, in which a retaliatory (although largely ignored) article criticized the 1936 study for failing to treat patients and misinforming participants. Efforts were made by the military to “keep men out of treatment” (CDC), even when penicillin was used to treat the disease. They stopped the study after the publication of a.=804244196618979