Circumcision does not stop HIV infections: iLIVE

28 November 2011 - 11:14 By Thomas Tobin by email
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
Surgeon's hand holding scalpel. File photo.
Surgeon's hand holding scalpel. File photo.
Image: Thinkstock/Gallo Images

Circumcision is ineffective in preventing HIV. In the US, 80% to 85% of all adult men were circumcised. We still managed to have one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world.

Here is a quote from Dr. Robert Bailey, a doctor who pushes circumcision on Africans:

'Kenya is furthest along, with about 330,000 circumcisions, a third of the government’s goal, which exceeds the international health agencies’ goal. “We’re hacking away at it every month,” Dr.

Baileysaid. “Those foreskins are flying.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27circumcision.html?pagewanted=all

Dr. Bailey is not a medical doctor or even a medical epidemiologist, but rather holds degrees in Anthropology and behavioral epidemiology.

Does this sound like a guy you want to trust with your health care?

Dr. David Tomlinson is chief expert to the World Health Organization on circumcision.  He invented the "improved" Gomco, the "improved"

Plastibell and the "improved" Accu-circ. Obviously, it is a conflict of interest for him to hold the position, when he stands to make money from each of these circumcision clamps sold.

Here Dr. Tomlinson is quoted in the advertising brochure for the Accu-circ.

http://todayshospitalist.com/index.php?b=articles_read&cnt=647

and an ad:

http://www.kentecmedical.com/media/document/AccuCircWorkshopBrochure.pdf

They make it seem so safe, comfortable, and marketable.

Having a foreskin, or not having a foreskin, makes little difference to the HIV virus. The point is that condoms work.  Circumcision does not.  New Zealanders have their foreskins, and one of the lowest HIV infection rates in the world.  France and Denmark don't circumcise, and their infection rates are 1/10th those in the United States, where circumcision is very common.

It doesn't have any great prevention powers:

http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102282676.html

http://journals.lww.com/stdjournal/Abstract/2011/11000/Circumcision_and_Acquisition_of_Human.16.aspx

It's dangerous:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/26/health/la-he-circumcision-20110926

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/atlanta-lawyer-wins-11-573890.html

http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7526&Itemid=131

http://www.nbrlawfirm.com/Medical-Malpractice/Blogs/toddler-dies-after-circumcision-at-manhattan-hospital

My point is, you should stop pushing circumcision as a preventative measure for HIV.

1.  It doesn't work

2.  Those who tell you it does, are lying for their own reasons

3.  Your people deserve the truth, Condoms work.  They protect both partners.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now