The Monitor (Kampala)
1 November 2007
So interesting and laughable, I first dismissed it as Mickey Mouse. Never did I expect circumcision to become a national policy, leave alone an 'international arsenal' in the war against HIV/Aids. Modern scientific research risks losing relevance through half-measures and conflicting theories.
[ See Article ]
It's very odd how an invitation-only meeting (of whom? they don't say) in Switzerland decided on this policy for all of Africa, on the basis of three non-blind trials conducted by circumcision-enthusiasts, that were cut short after 21 months. They keep saying circumcision cuts HIV by 50%. What they don't say is that it would take 55 circumcisions to prevent one HIV transmission in Uganda, on average. The non-circumcised control group in Uganda got less HIV than the circumcised experimental group in Kenya, so whatever you're doing in Uganda already (probably "zero grazing") works better than circumcision.
I'm afraid its not laughable at all. It will inevitably be inflicted on non-consenting children. Even here in the states it's most commonly done on newborn boys without anesthetic!
Take a look at what's lost, and what's "gained": http://www.math.missouri.edu/~rich/MGM/primer.html
Don't repeat the mistakes of the USA. We're just now starting to admit to the destructive effects of this quackery.