11. Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Experiment
During World War II, there was considerable concern about the potential for mass malaria infections, either as a result of biological warfare or just as a result of so many soldiers being stationed in the South Pacific. Furthermore, the medicine traditionally used to treat malaria – quinine – was in short supply because the Japanese had control of its quantity, vis-à-vis their power of Indonesia and the Philippines. To research malaria, particularly for devising alternative treatments, the government turned to a high-security prison: the Stateville Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois, where it offered prisoners a financial incentive of $25 to be voluntarily infected with malaria.
The particular strain used to infect the prisoners is one that is known to be resistant to quinine and also to create multiple relapses. The prisoners were treated exclusively with untested medications, which were sometimes given at doses that researchers believed would be toxic. One of the prisoners died from receiving a fatal treatment of drugs to treat malaria. In addition to serving as test subjects, the prisoners were used to recruit other prisoners as test subjects and even to fulfill roles like X-ray technicians and performing the dissection of mosquitoes. In other words, not only were they paid $25 to be infected with an untreatable form of malaria, but they were also experimented upon by other prisoners rather than trained medical personnel.