Nations to back male circumcision over H.I.V.

[pnwmom]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2209173,00.html

THREE YEAR STUDY SHOWS 60% REDUCTION IN CONTRACTION OF HIV.

"FIVE southern African countries that have been hit hard by the Aids pandemic want to encourage men to be circumcised after a study indicated that the procedure reduced dramatically the risk of HIV infection.

"Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia were holding talks with the UN Aids agency on making circumcision more accessible to men as part of HIV prevention efforts, a UN Aids adviser said.

"A three-year study involving 3,274 men aged 18 to 24 in a South African township suggested that circumcision reduced the risk of contracting HIV by 60 per cent. “What we showed was a dramatic effect. Those who were circumcised were protected against acquiring HIV,” said Adrian Purven, the deputy director of the Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa, who led the study. So conclusive were the results that the researchers stopped the study in July and offered circumcision to all the men taking part.

"UN Aids officials have launched two similar studies in Uganda and Kenya involving nearly 8,000 men. Interim results this month could establish the use of male circumcision in fighting against Aids. “This could be revolutionary for prevention but it is important to say this is not the silver bullet,” said Mr Lundstrom, who emphasised that condoms still offered the best protection against HIV."

[pnwmom]

1. Circumcision campaign is hoped to prevent more than 3 million deaths

over twenty years.

http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=17967,1,22

"So conclusive were the results that the South African and French researchers conducting the study at Orange Farm township halted it in July for ethical reasons and offered circumcision to all the men taking part.

"UN Aids officials have now launched two similar studies in Uganda and Kenya involving nearly 8 000 men. Interim results are expected later this month which could establish the use of male circumcision in fighting against Aids.

SNIP

"Helen Jackson from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said a recent meeting of health experts in Lesotho had concluded that southern Africa’s failure to bring down HIV infection rates was driven by “a lethal cocktail of multiple concurrent partners and lack of male circumcision.”

"Estimates show that 3.7 million infections and 2.7 million deaths could be averted over the next 20 years by resorting to male circumcision as a means of prevention, said Jackson."

[Cronus Protagonist]

18. The huge spread of HIV in males circumcised in the US is explained how?

They were almost all circumcized in the US, and they were dropping like flies.... until we found out that condoms work to prevent not only HIV transmission, but also a truckload of other STDs. Oh, yeah, anal intercourse is the primary transmission method in the civilized world - I bet if people had their anal tracts removed there would be less HIV transmission too... sheesh!

Condoms are cheaper, better and work against many other diseases. Genital mutilation is a poor substitute for condoms and, in fact, circumcised men are also encouraged to use condoms as a prophylactic anyway.

http://www.nocirc.org

I'll get out the popcorn while all you mutilated men try to justify your own mutilations and that of your poor, innocent little children just, well, just because... if you admitted you were mutilated, you would have to deal with that which you've spent a lifetime in denial about...

As someone else suggested in this thread you should chop off little Johnny's foreskin so, among other things, he looks like daddy? Barbaric. I live for the day that the US becomes civilized, but it appears to be heading backwards at an alarming rate.

:popcorn:

[Orrex]

20. IMO mutilation is in the eye of the beholder

I once dated a woman with a diamond-shaped scar on her shoulder and a jagged scar on her hip, but somehow I was able to get past it. She didn't think of it as mutiliation, and neither did I.

If you're serious, as I suspect you are, in your campaign to end circumcision, maybe you could consider starting with a less adversarial choice of buzzwords.

When you tell someone "you're mutilated, and if you say that you're not, then you're in denial," you castrate your own argument (if you'll excuse the mixed metaphor). Maybe some of us poor mutilated pricks are actualized about it--is that a possibility, or is everyone in your world a permanent victim?

Hey, frame your rhetoric in whatever terminology you find most effective, but if your intent is to effect change rather than simply to piss people off, I'd advise a path of greater diplomacy.

[Warpy]

2. Holy smokes, I had no idea the difference was this dramatic!

Thanks for posting this.

There are a lot of scary diseases out there, and I wouldn't be too surprised to find out circumcision slowed the transition of a lot of the bacterial diseases, as well. It's good that something does.

However, little boys want to look like daddy. That has to be taken into consideration, too, if you're considering it. Also consider that it is a surgical procedure, and anything that breaks the skin has risk. It's a small risk, but we can't deny it's there. Also make sure a kiddo is going to get a topical anesthetic.

I hope they manage to start this in HIV hot spots like Africa, though. Those folks need all the help they can get, and helping their boy children live longer through reducing the transmission of HIV at puberty is a good thing.

[pnwmom]

6. I think you're right -- individual decisions may vary, depending both

on risk factors and access to easy hygiene (i.e. available clean water).

I've read though that adult men in Africa are lining up for the procedure themselves.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. I think this needs some recommends so more people see it.

[pnwmom]

5. Thank you, BrklynLiberal.

The mods took it out of "late breaking" (I thought it qualified as news, but oh well) and put it in health. And I figured that no one would see it there.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. I cross-posted in GD with a link to this post.

[pnwmom]

12. thanks, I noticed that when I tried to check on my post. I thought

I had been banished to "health" forever.

:hi:

[babylonsister]

4. Nom. I never would have thought circumcisions would reduce

the incidence of AIDS. Thanks for informing me!

[pnwmom]

7. I think even the study's researchers were surprised by the strength of

the results.

[MockSwede]

13. Says something

about personal hygiene and access to water and bathing, etc.

[wiley]

8. Condoms still offer best protection. Giving women resources even better.

Other less invasive and less dangerous ways to prevent HIV and other STDs

1. Stop the rusty knife and blunt scapel mutilation of women's clitorises
2. Stop HIV-infected men from buying virgins and fucking them to "cure" AIDS
3. Stop forcing women to serve the sexual needs of HIV-infected relatives when their husband or "owner" dies
4. Teach men how to clean their foreskin properly. Dirty foreskin increases the transmission of STDs, not clean foreskin.
5. Stop the rape of girls, boys, women and men by tourists and "wealthy" older men in these countries
6. Stop the ongoing brutal rapes and murders in ethnic conflict areas like Darfur
7. Provide adaquate food, water and health care to prevent cracked and split skin lesion transmission of HIV
8. Provide free vasectomies for all men who want them.
9. Provide women with economic stability and status
10. Provide free condoms to everyone


The whole circumsicion thing as a means to prevent HIV transmission is probably the most complicated, cost ineffective, direct denial of the real issues solution ever proposed. If women had any rights or power in any of these countries abstinence would probably work better than circumcision.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. That is a very, very, very big "if". While we are waiting for that to

become a reality, why not try something that actually is effective right now?

We cannot even guarantee proper funding for women's health care, prenatal care, contraception and abortion when needed, even to save the life of the woman.

[pnwmom]

11. But don't you think it's for the medical people in Africa, knowing

the particular circumstances of their area -- for instance, the availabilty of clean water for simple hygiene -- to determine what measures make most sense for THEM?

You're right that those factors you cite contribute to the problem. But how many of them alone could cause a 60% reduction in contraction of HIV? For example, how long do you think it would take to put clean water systems in all over Africa -- even if the funds were available to bring clean water everywhere it was needed? How long before women have anything approaching equal rights?

Millions of Africans need solutions that will help RIGHT NOW. And doctors who are working there -- who are better situated than we are to know what could help -- see this as ONE thing that could.

[robbedvoter]

14. All pandemics have a beginning, middle and end. Even the plague

eventually stopped - and I doubt they were doing anything rational during those times. I am sure that by the time it eventually slowed down, someone took credit for killing calico cats so more rats would live .
Sorry, but I've seen too many statistics that serve a cynical purpose and this looks like one of those.
I hope the fact that the pandemic is diminishing is at least true.

[pnwmom]

15. How callous! AIDS is a global emergency. Are you advocating that

we just wait for it to end?

http://www.unaids.org/en/Coordination/FocusAreas/StrategicInformation.asp

Male circumcision
When the results reported in July 2005 of the first randomised controlled trial of male circumcision in Orange Farm, South Africa demonstrated a greater than 60% reduction in HIV acquisition among men aged 18 to 24 years who received circumcision, UNAIDS began working with WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA , the US National Institutes of Health, the French Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a United Nations Male Circumcision Work Plan.
The ambitious plan includes development of rapid assessment tools that countries can use to determine male circumcision prevalence, rates of side effects by provider, and acceptability; development of programmatic tools; development of a surgical manual; guidance on training, regulatory and licensing issues; assessment of resource needs; modelling of the potential impact on the epidemic and consideration of human rights, particularly with respect to adolescent consent for surgical procedures.
This work will provide the context for countries to determine the potential place of male circumcision within a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy, the safest way to offer the procedure and how to ensure that it does not displace or undermine current HIV prevention tools such as correct and consistent condom use, should the other trials report similar findings in the coming year.

[pnwmom]

16. While you wait for the natural end of a pandemic, the United Nations

is working to end it.

AIDS is nothing like the plague, by the way, because of the extremely long incubation time of the HIV virus. More than 65 million people have been infected, more than 25 million have died, more than 15 million children have been orphaned. And yet you see African research regarding male circumcision as serving a "cynical purpose." You're the cynic here, not the researchers that are searching for solutions other than waiting for the end of the pandemic.

http://www.un.org/ga/aidsmeeting2006/declaration.htm

Draft U.N. Declaration:

"We, heads of State and Government and representatives of States and Governments participating in the comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realizing the targets set out in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS on 31 May and 1 June 2006 and the High-Level Meeting on 2 June 2006;

"Note with alarm that we are facing an unprecedented human catastrophe and that a quarter of a century into the pandemic, AIDS has inflicted immense suffering on countries and communities throughout the world, and that more than 65 million people have been infected with HIV, more than 25 million people have died, 15 million children have been orphaned by AIDS, with millions more made vulnerable, and 40 million people are currently living with HIV, more than 95 per cent of whom are in developing countries;

"Recognize that HIV/AIDS constitutes a global emergency and poses one of the most formidable challenges to development, progress, and stability of our respective societies and the world at large and requires an exceptional and comprehensive global response;

SNIP

[robinlynne]

17. If that is true, it is wonderful!

[HuckleB]

19. One question...

Is it not possible that those who were circumsized came from wealthier families with different cultural cleansing opportunities, and/or sexual mores? If so, wouldn't this be a very drastic but worthless way to proceed?

[Warpy]

21. No, it was tribally based. Some tribes practice circumcision

and some tribes do not. That's how the samples were obtained.