Dr. Daniel Sidler, a presenter at the Genital Integrity 2008 conference, along with colleagues Drs. Johan Smith and Heinz Rode, have published an opinion piece in the South Africa Medical Journal descriptively entitled, Neonatal circumcision does not reduce HIV/AIDS infection rates.
I had the chance to visit with Dr. Sidler in Keele. He voiced the concerns that he writes about in his article. You can read it here. [Download SAOpinion.pdf].
The article is a comprehensive review broad overview of the published evidence and interpretation of circumcision in the area of HIV prevention. The primary points he covers are the lack of demographic evidence to support circumcision in the prevention of HIV, the poorly understood and vastly under-reported harms attendant to the practice, and the likely damage that implementation of circumcision will cause to the much more effective prevention efforts that have already shown massive improvement in countries, such as Uganda.
