Bill Jenkins Passed Away!

BE WARNED THERE WILL BE GRAPHIC PHOTOS.

The states of Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio have seen a spike in hepatitis A and syphilis. Due to the rise of heroin and fentanyl, many Americans were being exposed to these diseases. The rise of sexually transmitted diseases is becoming an epidemic.

A man famous for questioning the U.S. government's deliberate attack on Black men.

William Carter Jenkins dedicated his life to combating racial inequality in the health care system.

He believed that some African Americans were exposed to syphilis in the 1960s. He tried to put an end to the Tuskegee syphilis study. He passed away a week ago but the family had confirmed his passing. He passed away at the age of 73.

As a government epidemiologist, Jenkins was working at the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington, DC in the 1960s. He got word that the federal government was planning on giving men shots that were filled with the potentially deadly disease. They were told that they had "bad blood" and they were going to get treatment.

The men of Macon County, Alabama were stricken with syphilis. They contracted brain damage, paralysis, blindness and death. When they had sex with their wives and girlfriends, they got it too.

When their women got pregnant, the children would obtain it too.

Examples of syphilis untreated.

 
 

Jenkins overheard a conversation between two top level workers and decided to blow a whistle on it.

He spent the rest of his career fighting racism in the U.S. healthcare system, working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the early days of the AIDS crisis, and overseeing the government benefits program for survivors of the Tuskegee experiments.

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male was an infamous and unethical clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service.

The purpose of this study was to observe the natural history of untreated syphilis; the African-American men in the study were told they were receiving free health care from the United States government.

The Public Health Service started working on this study in 1932 in collaboration with Tuskegee University, a historically black college in Alabama. Investigators enrolled in the study a total of 600 impoverished, African-American sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama. Of these men, 399 had previously contracted syphilis before the study began, and 201 did not have the disease.

The men were given free medical care, meals, and free burial insurance for participating in the study. The men were told that the study was only going to last six months, but it actually lasted 40 years.

After funding for treatment was lost, the study was continued without informing the men that they would never be treated. None of the men were told that they had the disease, and none were treated with penicillin even after the antibiotic was proven to successfully treat syphilis. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told that they were being treated for "bad blood", a colloquialism that described various conditions such as syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. "Bad blood"—specifically the collection of illnesses the term included—was a leading cause of death within the southern African-American community.

Jenkins leaves behind a wife Diane Rowley and daughter Danielle Rowley-Jenkins.

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary). The primary stage classically presents with a single chancre (a firm, painless, non-itchy skin ulceration) but there may be multiple sores. In secondary syphilis, a diffuse rash occurs, which frequently involves the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. There may also be sores in the mouth or vagina. In latent syphilis, which can last for years, there are few or no symptoms. In tertiary syphilis, there are gummas (soft, non-cancerous growths), neurological, or heart symptoms. Syphilis has been known as "the great imitator" as it may cause symptoms similar to many other diseases.

Syphilis is most commonly spread through sexual activity. It may also be transmitted from mother to baby during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis. Other diseases caused by the Treponema bacteria include yaws (subspecies pertenue), pinta (subspecies carateum), and nonvenereal endemic syphilis (subspecies endemicum). These three diseases are not typically sexually transmitted. Diagnosis is usually made by using blood tests; the bacteria can also be detected using dark field microscopy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) recommend all pregnant women be tested.

The risk of sexual transmission of syphilis can be reduced by using a latex condom.

Syphilis can be effectively treated with antibiotics. The preferred antibiotic for most cases is benzathine benzylpenicillin injected into a muscle. In those who have a severe penicillin allergy, doxycycline or tetracycline may be used. In those with neurosyphilis, intravenous benzylpenicillin or ceftriaxone is recommended. During treatment people may develop fever, headache, and muscle pains, a reaction known as Jarisch-Herxheimer.

In 2015, about 45.4 million people were infected with syphilis, with 6 million new cases.

During 2015, it caused about 107,000 deaths, down from 202,000 in 1990.

After decreasing dramatically with the availability of penicillin in the 1940s, rates of infection have increased since the turn of the millennium in many countries, often in combination with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

This is believed to be partly due to increased promiscuity, prostitution, decreasing use of condoms, and unsafe sexual practices among men who have sex with men