title: [Untreated syphilis - from Oslo to Tuskegee].
abstract: In the period from 1891 - 1910, around 2000 patients with syphilis were admitted to the Department of Dermatology, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet. The head of the department, Cæsar Boeck (1845 - 1917), believed in allowing the disease to take its natural course and withheld treatment. He made detailed notes of the diagnosis and the clinical course of the disease for all his patients. Boeck's material is unique, and forms the basis for our current knowledge about the prognosis and course of syphilis infections. In 1928, the patients were scrutinised by Boeck's successor in the Department of Dermatology, Edvin Bruusgaard (1869 - 1934), and later by Trygve Gjestland (1911 - 1993). Gjestland's doctoral thesis from 1955 has remained as «The Oslo study of untreated syphilis.» This article presents a medical historical background for the study. Bruusgaard's and Gjestland's research was important for the Tuskegee Study in the USA, and the Oslo study gave implicit support to this research project, which posterity has emphatically condemned as ethically unacceptable.
authors.affiliation: Seksjon for miljø- og arbeidsmedisin Oslo Universitetssykehus, Ullevål.
authors.forename: Anniken
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sandvik
authors.affiliation: Institutt for helse og samfunn Universitetet i Oslo.
authors.forename: Anne Kveim
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lie
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D003880:Dermatology; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006805:Human Experimentation / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury / Q000266:history / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D010406:Penicillins / Q000266:history / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013587:Syphilis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history
chemical_list: D010406:Penicillins; D008628:Mercury