GUATEMALA EXPERIMENTS 1946-1948 
II 
there.” 190 The researchers decided to study orvus-mapharsen prophylaxis (an 
aqueous solution made up of 1-percent orvus [alkyl aryl sulfate] and 0.15- 
percent mapharsen that was supposed to be applied after sexual intercourse 
to prevent infection) 191 in cooperation with the Guatemalan Venereal Disease 
Control Department (which Dr. Funes directed) and the Penitenciarfa 
Central (Penitentiary) “where exposure of volunteers to infected prostitutes 
would provide the testing opportunities.” 192 Following prisoners, a contained 
and restricted population, after they had sexual intercourse with commercial 
sex workers known to be infected with STDs, promised to establish a “rapid 
and unequivocal answer as to the value of various prophylactic techniques” 
through the preferred technique of “normal exposure.” 193 
Other factors may have also influenced the decision to locate the research 
in Guatemala. The pre-existing relationship between the United States and 
Guatemala included aid for the provision of medical services and development 
of public health services. The Office of Inter-American Affairs, which brought 
fellows like Dr. Funes to the United States to study, and its predecessor, the 
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, 194 supported construc- 
tion of a 300-bed general hospital in Guatemala City in 1944. 195 In addition, 
the presence of other U.S. medical researchers working in Guatemala ensured 
that the researchers would not be alone in their efforts. 
With Guatemala identified as a research location, the VDRL needed a way 
to pay for the research. During the war, OSRD and CMR had served to 
coordinate and fund an expanded system to support scientific and biomedical 
research. 196 As these war-time activities began winding down, federal 
policymakers, spurred in part by Surgeon General Thomas Parran and NIH 
Director R.E. Dyer, shifted authority to PHS and NIH, whose Congressional 
mandates changed considerably in 1944 197 (see Figure 3.) The enactment of the 
Public Health Service Act, on July 1, 1944, created a PHS grant system under 
the Surgeon General and authorized the National Advisory Health Council 
(NAHC) (see Figure 4) to recommend projects to be funded. 198 The NAHC 
was a longstanding government committee of federal and nonfederal scientific 
advisors established in 1902 as the Advisory Board for the Hygienic Laboratory 
of the Public Health Service, 199 the precursor to the NIH. 200 
29 
