International Physician's Group Questions Circumcision To Prevent HIV

Medical News Today. Tuesday, 2 January 2007.

Doctors Opposing Circumcision (DCO), the Seattle-based physicians non-profit educational organization, announces the online publication of its statement, The Use of Male Circumcision to Prevent HIV Infection.

The statement is a response to misleading public statements by the National Institutes of Health and others regarding male circumcision as a preventative against HIV infection.

The statement concludes:

Calls are being heard for the circumcision of children although (assuming that male circumcision is effective at controlling female-to-male infection) this could not be helpful until the child becomes sexually active. The excision of healthy body parts from non-consenting children is a violation of human rights and medically unethical. Therefore, the true motivation of the circumcision proponents must be questioned. It may be perpetuation of neonatal circumcision, not control of HIV.

DOC believes that more emphasis on education, behavior change - such as abstinence before marriage and fidelity after marriage, provision of condoms, treatment of other sexually transmitted diseases, treatment of genital ulcer disease, control of malaria, and provision of safe healthcare would be more likely to produce beneficial results. The ultimate answer is likely to be one or more ofthe vaccines now in development.

http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org

Citation:

International Physician's Group Questions Circumcision To Prevent HIV. Med News Today. 2007-01-02

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