And now this contradiction from China: Health Minister Chen Zhu says HIV slowing, China may consider circumcision in HIV fight

I have always thought that East Asia with its strong emphasis on modernizing and catching up with the West, primarily the United States, would be vulnerable to circumcision campaigns. Witness South Korea, for instance. Now with HIV/AIDS as an excuse (and a vector) for cultural practices, it could take off there. It's a rather confounding development because sexual mutilation intuitively should find resistance where it has been absent. The biggest irony? The spread of HIV is slowing, and yet the health minister cites this as a reason to consider circumcision.

Link: China AIDS rate slows, main transmission now sex - Yahoo! News.

Fair use Reuters article after the break.

China AIDS rate slows, main transmission now sex

The rate of new HIV/AIDS infections in China is slowing and is now mainly being transmitted through sex, which the government could tackle with a circumcision campaign, the health minister said on Thursday.

The country will have an estimated 50,000 new infections in 2007, compared with 70,000 in 2005, though groups like men who have sex with men are increasingly at risk, according to a report by the State Council, or Cabinet, and the United Nations.

That will mean there will be about 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS this year in China, up from an earlier estimate of 650,000.

Of the new infections, 44.7 percent will come from heterosexual transmission, 12.2 percent from men having sex with men, and 42 percent from intravenous drug use, the report said.

In the past, most infections were caused by intravenous drug use.

"At present, the AIDS epidemic in China continues to spread, but at a slower rate," Health Minister Chen Zhu told a news conference. "Sexual transmission is now the main route for the spread of AIDS."

Chen said more focus needed to be put on traditionally marginalized groups, like the gay community and drug users, though he added condom use by sex workers had risen from 14.7 percent in 2001 to 41.4 percent last year.

Yet the report found risky behavior by men who have sex with men remained widespread, with just a third using condoms for anal sex.

Chen said that with infections now primarily coming via sexual transmission, a male circumcision campaign could not be ruled out in China.

Studies have shown that circumcision could reduce the risk of HIV infection by up to 60 percent, though it does not offer total protection from the virus.

The World Health Organisation has already recommended it as one of the ways developing countries, especially in Africa, could use to fight the spread of AIDS.

"This is a technical question. I think our experts will evaluate it," Chen later told Reuters. "Even before the AIDS era some children in China were already being circumcised."

Circumcision rates are low in China compared to Asian countries like South Korea or Japan, where the foreskin is often removed at birth for hygiene reasons, or Muslim countries like Indonesia which practice it for religious reasons.

China's Muslim minority, concentrated in the far western region of Xinjiang, likewise circumcise their male children, normally as they reach puberty.

Chen said that were the government to decide to promote circumcision among the wider population, he did not think it would run into much opposition or cultural problems.

"As long as there is evidence it is effective, I don't think it would be an issue," he said.

Reference

Blanchard, Ben. China AIDS rate slows, main transmission now sex. Reuters (via Yahoo! News). November 29, 2007.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071129/hl_nm/china_aids_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AouO4T4qjKXCqhWqSoJiFTcR.3QA

Comments

[J]

This makes absolutely no sense wasn't it just a few months ago that China rejected this idea? And if your previous post was right Dave, China would have one of the lowest rates of infection in the world. What they need to do is focus on education they are in a position, and have the resources, to do that very effectively; it just requires the government to be more forward with their people.

Oh and where on earth did the reporter get this: Circumcision rates are low in China compared to Asian countries like South Korea or , or Muslim countries like Indonesia which practice it for religious reasons. Clearly, a lack of research.

[IntactwhitemaleUSA]

Ok, it's unlikely that China will adopt circ as an AIDS prevention strategy. Why? First off, China's AIDS rate has been wildy overstated, and the future projections don't wash. Furthermore, what's done in America has decreasing truck with the rest of the world for a variety of reasons. Circumcision is a foriegn practice, done by China's Muslim (and hated, oppressed) minority. What's done in Korea is unlikely to catch on in China or Japan. Remeber the 3 kingdoms - India, China, Japan? Korea was considered an uncivilised hinterland and will probably continue to be so by all three. I'm not worried about this - yet.

[Hugh7]

My reading is that the reporter pressed Minister Chen about circumcision, and he tried to stay as inscrutable as he could.

"...could tackle with a circumcision campaign" is the reporter's version of what he said.

"Chen said that ... a male circumcision campaign could not be ruled out in China"
Translation:
Reporter: Minister, will China have a circumcision campaign?
Minister: We can't rule it out.

Reporter: "The World Health Organisation has already recommended it ...
Minister: "This is a technical question. I think our experts will evaluate it," (Thinks round wildly for something to say - Eureka, quite irrelevant:) "Even before the AIDS era some children in China were already being circumcised. As long as there is evidence it is effective, I don't think it would be an issue." (Thinks: Thank Chairman Mao I didn't commit us to anything.)

[Joe in CA]

Methinks this Blanchard person is putting words in the Chinese minister's mouth for an English (American?) reader's sake.

Check this Blanchard's background. Does he happen to be American and/or Jewish?

"Circumcision rates are low in China compared to Asian countries like South Korea or Japan, where the foreskin is often removed at birth for hygiene reasons..."

EXCUSE ME??? Where IS this information being dug up from???

Not even KOREA circumcises boys at birth. The custom in Korea is to circumcise children at an older age, and that fact is due to American influence.

NO child in Japan is EVER circumcised at birth. Men that get circumcised do so out of their own volition.

LIKE IT SHOULD BE.

I happen to be LIVING in Japan and have researched the matter thoroughly.

Everyone having read this needs to e-mail Ben Blanchard to get his facts straight.

[David]

My experience has been that non-Jewish Americans are often more strident in their pro-circumcision beliefs than Jewish Americans. Of course, I live in San Francisco where there is a relatively laid back view of these things. But my personal belief is that circumcision is an American socio-cultural problem without regard to the religious background of the individual, although it can and does clearly play a part.

In regards to the obvious error in regards to Japan, this line has popped up before in the popular media. It's obviously a poor reflection on this particular reporter, who has written hundreds of articles and should know better. I think it is safe to assume he hasn't "gone native" during his time abroad.

In regards to the Korean example, Koreans may circumcise later and often, but not always, offer themselves up for the sacrifice, they do so under very extreme peer pressure and under misconceptions of its value. So it's nominally voluntary, but it's also very much compelled by the cultural milieu.