GUATEMALA EXPERIMENTS 1946-1948 
II 
SUBJECT PROFILE: CARLOS 
continued through 1953, well after Dr. 
Cutler left the country in 1948. 263 
Carlos, a male prisoner at Guatemala 
City’s Penitenciaria Central in 1947, 
contracted syphilis before he was 
enrolled in the PHS experiments. He 
noticed a chancre during the summer 
of the preceding year, and a blood test 
confirmed that he had syphilis. 
In September 1946, Carlos 
was treated with injections of 
Neosalvarsan, as well as 11 injections 
of bismuth (standard of care for 
the time). Although Carlos was 
asymptomatic when he arrived at the 
Penitentiary, dark-field microscopy 
showed that he still had syphilis. 
Carlos was treated by the researchers 
with 3,400,000 units of penicillin over 
the course of a week, and his blood 
tests showed dramatic improvement 
during the following two months. 
Several days after beginning the 
work in the Penitentiary, Dr. Cutler 
reported traveling to the “lowlands” 
for a “preliminary venereal disease 
survey” in children. 264 In December, 
he described doing small-scale serologic 
work in the Hospital de Profilaxis (Vene- 
real Disease and Sexual Prophylaxis 
Hospital) (VDSPH), a hospital directed 
by Dr. Funes, Dr. Cutler’s colleague 
who originally suggested the research in 
Guatemala. 265 
In total, the researchers, including coop- 
erating Guatemalan officials, conducted 
syphilis serology experiments on Guate- 
malan prisoners, children, psychiatric 
patients, and leprosy patients. Blood 
specimens from U.S. Air Force 
personnel stationed in Guatemala were also used to compare results between 
Guatemalan and U.S. populations. 266 There is no record of any of the subjects 
involved in the serology experiments consenting to any of the procedures 
performed by investigators. 267 
Penitentiary 
Overall, 842 prisoners were involved in diagnostic testing for STDs, which 
included gonorrhea and chancroid, and the researchers discovered high rates 
of false positives for syphilis. 268 Dr. Cutler concluded that either syphilis 
affected a much higher portion of the Guatemalan population than expected, 
or that other “factors. . .operative in the population different from those 
experienced in the United States or in Northern Europe” explained the 
results. 269 A high base rate of syphilis in the population would have limited 
the researchers’ ability to conduct planned prophylaxis experiments. 270 Dr. 
Cutler later explained “[t]he serologic findings posed a real problem.” 271 
37 
