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Syphilis Affecting African Americans

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For 40 years, many African Americans in Alabama that were infected with syphilis were left untreated as part of an experiment to determine how “different” syphilis affected blacks. This was an orchestrated even by the United States Public Health Service, and other organizations; whose job is to protect the public. Syphilis is a highly contagious infection spread by sexual contact. If untreated, it can cause bone and dental deformations, deafness, blindness, heart disease and deterioration of the central nervous system. The participants, mostly made of poor, uneducated black men, were lured into the program with false pretenses, not advising of the infections they carried (Heller). The study organizers did not properly obtain the consent

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