VIENNA, Austria -- An Austrian experts' commission says hundreds of people, including children, were injected with the parasite which causes malaria as part of research for a cure against syphilis, long after penicillin was available.
The commission is investigating accusations by former wards of a state-run orphanage. State broadcaster ORF quoted commission head Gernot Heiss Friday as saying that ongoing investigations of the 1951-1969 period show that 230 people, including some children at the orphanage, were subjects of the experiment.
The injections normally caused two weeks of fever as high as 42 degrees Celsius (nearly 108 Fahrenheit) as well as sudden fever attacks continuing up to two decades. The fever was meant to kill the syphilis bacteria.
It was not disclosed whether anyone died as a result.
