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  #1 written by Mark Lyndon
  May 10, 2009 - 7:42 am

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  The people pushing circumcision in Africa are only interested in promoting male circumcision for its own sake (or anything-but-condoms), rather than in fighting AIDS.

  There are seven African countries where men are more likely to be HIV+ if they’ve been circumcised: Rwanda, Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, and Tanzania. Eg in Malawi, the HIV rate is 13.2% among circumcised men, but only 9.5% among intact men. In Cameroon, the HIV rate is 4.1% among circumcised men, but only 1.1% among intact men. If circumcision really worked against AIDS, this just wouldn’t happen. We now have people calling circumcision a “vaccine” or “invisible condom”, and viewing circumcision as an alternative to condoms.

  ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful, Condoms) is the way forward. Promoting genital surgery will cost African lives, not save them.

  It’s not like we’ve actually tried the things that do work. In Malawi for instance, only 57% know that condoms protect against HIV/AIDS, and only 68% know that limiting sexual partners protects against HIV/AIDS. There are people who haven’t even heard of condoms. It just seems really misguided to be hailing male circumcision as the way forward. It would help if some of the aid donors didn’t refuse to fund condom education, or work that involves talking to prostitutes. There are African prostitutes that sleep with 20-50 men a day, and some of them say that hardly any of the men use a condom. If anyone really cares about men, women, and children dying in Africa, surely they’d be focussing on education about safe sex rather than surgery that offers limited protection at best, and runs a high risk of risk compensatory behaviour.

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  #2 written by Ash
  May 11, 2009 - 11:06 am

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  People also need to keep in mind that the U.S., a country where a large majority of sexually active men ARE circumcised, DOES NOT have a low HIV rate because of it. In fact, the U.S.’s HIV rate shows that all the African studies have been outright falsified.

  Safe sexual practices are the only way to be protected from STDs, not mutilating the genitals.

  The studies supporting circumcision are either outdated or were poorly done and have major methodological flaws. Newer studies have either totally refuted the old studies, or have shown that their findings are not as severe as stated. Plus, NO MEDICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD supports or recommends routine circumcision for newborn boys. In fact, an overwhelming majority of males in this world are INTACT – approximately 85% – and remain intact for life.

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