Currently, sexually transmitted diseases have reached epidemic levels in the United States. Just like in 16th century Europe, where syphilis was an epidemic, long before penicillin had ever been extracted. Initially, syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, was treated using poisonous mercury, hence the famous saying: “A night with Venus, a life with Mercury.” (Wise). Syphilis was an incurable disease. Therefore, medical records of the disease were inaccurate and unreliable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay It had been called by the English and Germans "the French disease" and by the French "the Neapolitan disease". However, it is now remembered as a horrific act committed by the United States government against the black African-American male population of Tuskegee. The program began with a promising goal in mind, justifying treatment programs for African Americans with syphilis. A Public Health Services-sponsored study to recognize Southern counties with the highest rates of syphilis among African American males. In 1929, the Rosenwald Fund, an organization that promoted the education and health care of poor African Americans, began aggressive treatment using mercury. “The cure rate is less than thirty percent; treatment takes months and the side effects are toxic, sometimes fatal.” That same year, economic depression struck until eventually the Rosenwald Organization was forced to cut funding. In 1932, in a follow-up effort, Public Health Services along with the Tuskegee Institute collaborated to initiate a study with six hundred uninformed African American male participants, 399 of whom had already contracted the disease. The study was supported only if Tuskegee got credit "and black professionals were involved." This is also why Dr. Dibble and Nurse Rivers were assigned to the study. Participants were told they were being treated for "bad blood" (CDC), which at the time was a general term for many venereal diseases such as gonorrhea, genital herpes, and infection. Chlamydia. “In exchange for participating, the men received free medical visits, free meals and burial insurance.” Importantly, the majority of participants were farmers and the offers of insurance and free medical visits were something they did not have access to before the study. Those who already had syphilis were never told that they already had it, this surely led to their spouses (and other sexual partners) contracting the disease, which led to an exponential growth of the disease within of the population. When it began, the study was supposed to last six months, but it continued for up to a year and then extended every time a breakthrough occurred, making the study last forty years! To add to the horror, in reality, the men were never treated. Basically, they were getting worse and even dying. Researchers were supposed to observe and study syphilis and not cure the disease, simply studying the effects of syphilis. The first article was published in 1934, in which a retaliatory (though largely ignored) article criticized the 1936 study for failing to treat patients and misinforming participants. The military had made efforts to “prevent men from receiving treatment” (CDC), even when penicillin was used to treat this disease. They stopped the study after the Associated Press published an article in July 1972 regarding the unethical treatment. The”.=804244196618979