when was treatment for syphilis discovered?
The study began in 1932, when syphilis was a widespread problem and there was no safe and effective treatment. The study was designed to measure the progression of untreated syphilis. By 1947, penicillin had been shown to be an effective cure for early syphilis and was becoming widely used to treat the disease.
In 1932, the year in which the Tuskegee Study began, the USPHS sponsored and published a paper by Moore and six other syphilis experts that strongly argued for treating latent syphilis. The Oslo Study, therefore, could not have provided justification for the USPHS to undertake a study that did not entail treatment.