Introduction
For an extended period, the development of the healthcare sector had been impacted by the ideas of race and the superiority of white people. As a result, theories emerged about how diseases affect people of different ethnicities. In the USA, relations between black and white populations were among the central factors shaping the state’s evolution.
In the 20th century, the problem remained topical, leading to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Organized by the Public Health Service (PHS) to investigate the condition, it became one of the most discriminatory and dramatic experiments in history. The biased attitude, racism, and sanitation syndrome could explain the failure to offer treatment to black patients with early syphilis.
Review of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The first decades of the 20th century were characterized by the dominance of discriminatory views on black people and their complex living conditions. Thus, in 1932, in Tuskegee, 82% of all residents were black and lived below the poverty line (Washington, 2008). Poor nutrition, lack of housing, and diverse infections, starting from malaria and ending with syphilis, critically affected the health of the community (Washington, 2008).
At the same time, syphilis, as one of the sexually transmitted diseases, was a severe threat to the nation’s health, fertility, and productivity (Washington, 2008). That is why investigating the problem was critical for the state and its further development. Nevertheless, respondents of Tuskegee were not told they had syphilis (Hammond, 2020). It means the study was organized in ways that caused critical harm to thousands of black people.
In such a way, the failure to offer treatment to black patients with syphilis was intentional. Scientists at PHS believed that venereal diseases developed differently in blacks and whites (Washington, 2008). The given idea could be proven by investigating a group of infected black people and documenting the progression of the condition until all participants died (Hammond, 2020).
Although penicillin could have been an effective intervention, the measure was not implemented at Tuskegee (Washington, 2008). Furthermore, PHS’s doctors viewed black people as resistant to health measures, intellectually inferior, degenerate, and a syphilis-soaked race (Washington, 2008). These assumptions critically impacted the results of the experiment and the general failure to treat black patients.
Additionally, the problem of treating syphilis was complicated by the segregation and sanitation syndrome. According to Swanson (1977), the spread of infectious diseases was often associated with the black population and poor living conditions peculiar to their neighborhoods. In such a way, sanitizing meant isolating a particular group and removing whites to ensure they were protected (Swanson, 1977). It also implied the need for social control and monitoring to avoid severe outcomes. The same could be observed during the study at Tuskegee, as a mainly black community was isolated and deprived of essential treatment.
Conclusion
Altogether, the failure to provide treatment to black people was caused by several critical issues. Racism and poor living conditions created conditions beneficial for the emergence of the disease. Additionally, scientists at PHS wanted to prove that black people had different responses to syphilis compared to white individuals.
As a result, an unethical and illegal experiment was conducted. Everyone who took part in the research faced severe complications and critical results of untreated syphilis. The refusal to offer treatment was intentional as it was necessary for monitoring the process of syphilis’ development and black patients’ responses to it.
References
Hammond, M. (2020). Epidemics of the modern world. University of Toronto Press.
Swanson, M. (1977). The sanitation syndrome: Bubonic plague and urban native policy in the Cape colony, 1900-1909. The Journal of African History, 18(3), 387-410.
Washington, H. (2008). Medical apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on black Americans from colonial times to the present. Anchor Books.
