BACKGROUND 
I 
STD PROPHYLAXIS OPTIONS 
Orvus-mapharsen: a substance 
made up of 1 percent orvus 
[alkyl aryl sulfate] and 0.15 
percent mapharsen in aqueous 
solution and was supposed 
to be applied after sexual 
intercourse to prevent infection. 
Calomel: a substance used by 
the U.S. Army and Navy as a 
post-exposure prophylaxis for 
syphilis. 
Silver proteinate: the active 
ingredient in one of the post- 
exposure prophylaxis regimens 
used for gonorrhea. 
Similarly, as Dr. Cutler wrote in his 1952 
Experimental Studies in Gonorrhea report, 
Drs. Mahoney and Arnold hoped that 
the orvus-mapharsen prophylaxis would 
also prove effective for gonorrhea. 183 Post- 
exposure prophylaxis regimens to prevent 
gonorrhea during WWII involved a solution 
of silver proteinate injected directly into 
the urethra that, like the calomel solution 
for syphilis prophylaxis, did not appeal 
to servicemen. 184 Furthermore, animal 
testing was unhelpful because gonorrhea 
produced in a rabbit’s eye or chick embryo 
lacked appropriate comparability to the 
male urethra. Drs. Mahoney and Arnold, 
Dr. Cutler said, wanted to test orvus- 
mapharsen’s effectiveness in man. 185 Dr. 
Cutler later explained that a large-scale field 
study of orvus-mapharsen would have included many men and a long period 
of observation, and therefore a carefully controlled study in a small group was 
deemed advisable. 186 The VDRL found an opportunity to undertake this work 
in 1946 in Guatemala. 
25 
