Female Circumcision is NOT the Answer to Preventing AIDS in Africa
I just wanted to comment on the article AIDS in Africa: Where Goes the Money? By Chief K Masimba Biriwasha.
Funds are becoming ever scarce, and people need to wonder, where DOES go the money? Where SHOULD it go?
We have to really sit down and wonder what is being promoted here.
UNAIDS Head Michel Sidibe and Deputy President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe are very heavily promoting genital mutilation as HIV "prevention" and no one at the conference seems to be raising an eyebrow?
Has the whole world gone MAD???
First of all, the VERY idea. Would the WHO, UNAIDS etc. ever recommend FEMALE circumcision as a way to curb AIDS, if it were shown in "studies" that it "might" prevent HIV transmission by 60%? What about 100%?
The answer is, no, they wouldn't. Forcefully circumcising a girl or woman would be immediately recognized as a basic human rights violation. When something is a basic human rights violation, it doesn't matter how many studies are written for it. All the "studies" in the world would not be enough to promote female circumcision. How is it that we have allowed this to happen with male circumcision?
Why can't researchers seem to focus on something else? What research is being done to move past circumcision? What studies are being made on alternative medicine? Usually, medicine tries to ABOLISH the use of surgery, not seek its preservation. This "lets circumcise everybody" idea is MADNESS. I'm surprised no opposition was raised at the conference.
But secondly, the claim that circumcision prevents HIV isn't entirely solid. There are a few realities that "researchers" have failed to explain.
In America, for example, 80% of men are already circumcised from birth. The rates of infant circumcision are dropping, but at large, the population remains circumcised. These rates are at their highest in the East Coast, where cities such as Philadelphia and Washington DC rival HIV hotspots in South Africa. In the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic first hit, the rate of circumcised men in America was at 90%. One needs to question how something that never worked here in our own country is suddenly going to start working wonders in Africa.
In other countries, the "protection" remains to be seen as well. AIDS is a rising problem in Israel, where the majority of the male population is already circumcised. On Wednesday, July 7th, two weeks ago, Malaysian AIDS Council vice-president Datuk Zaman Khan announced that than 70% of the 87,710 HIV/AIDS sufferers in the country are Muslims (in other words CIRCUMCISED). The Muslim, circumcised population accounts for 70% of the incidence of HIV, but only 60% of the population, which would mean that the circumcised population is getting HIV at a much higher rate than the non-circumcised population.
Millions are being spent on a "prevention method" with dubious benefits, when they could be spent on other modes of prevention that have been conclusively proven to work. Condoms and education for example. Some people say "that hasn't worked," but that's not the reality. In some parts of Africa, it has worked so well that people wanting to "study" circumcision there have no cases to work with.
Circumcision is going to COST more money in the long run. A recent issue of the WHO Bulletin noted that African ritual circumcisions have a 35% complication rate, while clinical circumcisions have an 18% complication rate. A neonatal circumcision complication rate of 20.2% was found in Nigeria. As you may know, Annie, funds for the fight against AIDS are scarce. Dealing with these complications is going to divert resources away from other more-needed programs, such as mother-to-child transmission reduction, and treatment of people who are already infected.
Not to mention that men are using their circumcisions as an excuse not to wear condoms, putting themselves and their partners in danger. That's MORE money, because now you have more people infected, and more people on drugs. But that's what this whole thing in Vienna was about, wasn't it; drugs.
Tribal groups are using the WHO's stance to go ahead with traditional circumcision rituals, where men, if they want to be called "real men," are ostracised if they want to go to a hospital to have a "safe" circumcision. 47 men have already died this year, and a lot more have lost their penises to gangrene. This is already being used to carry out circumcisions in healthy, non-consenting CHILDREN. "Rights here, right now" was the slogan at this year's conference. Where is human rights HERE? How is it that circumcision is being pushed on children who aren't even sexually active and therefore at ZERO risk? Shouldn't circumcision be for those who WANT it, and they KNOW they're going to be engaging in risky behavior? Why are men being coerced in KwaZulu Natal? This is MADNESS.
This is an UNACCEPTABLE form of "prevention." Leaders need to find something else. I cannot get behind a movement that endorses genital mutilation as "prevention." They'll just have to get their money and my signature for their precious "Vienna Declaration" from elsewhere. And I'm notifying all my friends too. As long as this madness continues, UNAIDS, UNICEF etc. should NOT be getting our money. This is absolute MADNESS.
J. Lewis
