The University of California at San Francisco's public HIV/AIDS information portal has been quick to trumpet media stories touting circumcision as a "preventative" prophylactic measure, but has recently been utterly silent on the extremely high complication rates observed in both medical and traditional circumcision in Kenya.
UCSF has long been at the forefront of HIV/AIDS research. However, it's faculty and program staff have shown they are not immune to falling prey to the evangelism of the authors of the recent African circumcision RCTs. Not surprisingly, they are in favor of circumcision despite widespread doubts on ethical, demographic, and other grounds.
Unfortunately, as HIV/AIDS has proven time and time again, it has the power to muddle the minds of men even as the knowledge necessary to suppress it and ultimately defeat it increasingly becomes evident. UCSF's deliberate silence shows a clear bias in favor of circumcision untempered by a balanced assessment of its effectiveness in the HIV/AIDS fight.
