Johns Hopkins University intentionally infected Guatemalan orphans, soldiers and inmates with sexually transmitted diseases, 774 people claim, seeking $1 billion for the "crime against humanity."
Johns Hopkins researchers chose Guatemala as the site for its penicillin-based human experiments in the 1940s and 1950s because U.S. relations with the country were amicable and the militaries of both counties could "ensure secrecy and access to vulnerable, captive populations ... many drawn for socio-economically disadvantaged indigenous groups," the April 1 complaint states.
The Estate of Arturo Giron Alvarez is the lead plaintiff in the suit, filed in Baltimore City Court, which also names Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Rockefeller Foundation as defendants.
Because researchers in previous studies had difficulty transmitting diseases in laboratory settings, and because prostitution was legal in Guatemala at the time of the study, the human experiments involved infecting prostitutes with syphilis, gonorrhea and other diseases during the sex workers' regular inspections at clinics, according to the complaint. The Guatemalans say study subjects then acquired the disease by having intercourse with these workers, none of whom were told about the nature of the experiments.
"Nothing was done to prevent them from passing the diseases on to their spouses, children and other descendants," the complaint states. "As a result, many Guatemalans have suffered and died, and will continue to suffer and die, from the venereal diseases with which they were intentionally infected."
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