Male Circumcision and HIV

TIME: Condoms designed specifically for circumcised men?

The author doesn't come right out and say it. But it seems plausible enough. Men who are circumcised and therefore desensitized dislike condoms because, well, they lose their erections due to desensitization. A need without a product until now.

Could a New 'Viagra Condom' Encourage Safer Sex?

It's been dubbed the "Viagra condom," but that's not entirely accurate. The new product is lined with a vasodilating gel, which increases blood flow to the penis and helps maintain erection. But unlike the pill, it's not designed for men who have erectile dysfunction; rather, it's meant for men who have trouble keeping erections specifically while using a condom.

Africa could become a huge market with the circumcision juggernaut steamrolling men by inducing circumcision envy and foreskin panic. If a circumcision doesn't kill African men's erections, the truth that they still have to wear condoms will. No worries. The NGOs now have a solution. No wonder fighting AIDS is so expensive.

SWAZI OBSERVER: Plea to women to encourage male partners to get circumcised misinterpreted

The Swazi Observer reports that a campaign to encourage male circumcision by motivating women to berate and ridicule encourage men to do it has backfired. The intent was to get these women involved with the process ...

New male circumcision campaign targets women

However, this campaign has been misinterpreted by some people who thought that the message being sent out was that they were safe from contracting sexually transmitted infections when they were circumcised and therefore, could have more than one sexual partner.  The posters on the public transport display pictures of a man and four women accompanied by the word; “ngingumancoba” (I am a conqueror). To some, this has implied that after circumcision, they would be safe from sexually transmitted illnesses, hence the decision to have multiple concurrent partners.

RAW STORY: Arizona ‘birther’ law to accept circumcision papers as proof of citizenship

Read it for yourself.

Arizona ‘birther’ law to accept circumcision papers as proof of citizenship

If you intend to run for president in Arizona but don't have the required birth certificate, all is not lost. The state may be willing to accept a description of your penis -- if you've got one -- as proof you were born in the U.S.

Before passing their so-called "birther" bill Wednesday, Arizona Republicans apparently decided it wasn't fair to limit proof of citizenship to the "long form birth certificate." So, they amended the measure to include several other forms of proof.

One such document, a certificate of circumcision, is given to the parents of a male Jewish child after his foreskin is snipped.

The absurd has finally merged with the disturbing/amusing from a few years ago when this little item made the rounds on the birther sites.

Birthers Want To See Obama’s Penis

Birthers have now decided that what makes a person a true, blue, red-blooded American is not the color of your complexion but how much foreskin you have.

Commenters (and circumcised Americans) over at Free Republic struck on a revelation yesterday: if Barack Obama has not been circumcised, then he must not have been born in the United States. Why? Because all of their boys were circumcised.

I'm glad this controversy has finally hit the mainstrain of the outer fringes. A controversy has to penetrate the national psyche pretty far to make these kinds of headlines. 

UK: Doctor struck off the medical registry for taking circumcision fetish too far

It's rare that a doctor who sexually fetishizes circumcision takes his obsession so far as to sexually abuse his patients during the course of treatment (except for recommending and carrying out the unnecessary circumcisions themselves, of course). But one has done just that. While being found not guilty of sexual assault against mostly teenage patients (hats off to those lawyers!), he has been found unfit to practice medicine.

A Fitness to Practice Panel for the General Medical Council in the UK has concluded that Dr. Aivar Bracka is unfit to practice medicine due to misconduct. The panel's report concludes:

The Interim Order currently imposed on Dr Bracka’s registration is hereby revoked. Having determined that Dr Bracka’s name be erased from the Medical Register, the Panel has now considered in accordance with Section 38 of the Medical Act 1983, as amended, whether his registration should be suspended forthwith.

The Panel has considered the submission made by Ms Goddard on behalf of the General Medical Council (GMC), that an order for immediate suspension is necessary. You have made no submissions on Dr Bracka’s behalf.

Having taken account of its determination on sanction, the serious nature of Dr Bracka’s misconduct and the risk posed to patients and the public interest, the Panel has determined that it is necessary for the protection of members of the public and in the public interest that his registration be suspended forthwith.

The substantive direction for erasure will take effect 28 days from today, unless an appeal is lodged in the interim. The immediate suspension takes effect today and will remain in force until the substantive direction takes effect or until such time as the outcome of any appeal is decided.

Download GMC Findings re Bracka Unfit to Practice Medicine

The findings of fact in the above document are chilling. The now former Dr. Bracka once co-authored a paper detailing a method of circumcision requiring the victim to be fully erect during the procedure. Download Circumcision: A Refined Technique and 5 Year Review.

In HIV-ravaged Rwanda, government comes up with two great reasons to skip the condom

The BBC reports that circumcisions and vasectomies will be offered together in a one-stop shopping experience to at once reduce population and HIV. Critics have derided the effort as a way to speed population decline by spreading HIV ... Finally, two great reasons to skip condom use!

Rwanda in vasectomy drive to stem population growth

Rwanda's government has said it wants to encourage men to have vasectomies in a bid to stem the small landlocked country's growing population.

It would be done along with its HIV prevention campaign to encourage all men to be circumcised.

...

CDC begins to promote male circumcision in the United States, backlash to follow

A blogger's update and a comment on infant death in America

Well, I have moved house and taken several boxes, representing a decade and a half of bank statements, old pay stubs, report cards, state bar notices from two states, student loan dunning letters, threats to foreclose or repossess property I don't own anymore, demands for payment of back taxes, client hate mail and letters of thanks (yes, I get both!), parking ticket second, third, and fourth notices, and a shoe box of inappropriate love poems from inappropriate people (or am I misinterpreting?), to the local OfficeMax to be shredded and recycled. But I didn't stop there. I've reorganized my forms library; deleted old photos of crime scenes from long forgotten crimes (and clients); put some coherent order to recent and current client files; and consolidated offices. I even donated six bags of old clothes, shoes, and books. I think I may be ready to refocus on this blog as soon as I slog through 250 unread emails.

Then again, maybe I've had too many cans of La Playa beer at 3:30 in the afternoon.

Nah, I think I really did do those things and I AM ready. Seriously, I have to get it together on MC_HIV. I have a lot to say even though sometimes I feel as though I've already said it all.

Here's what you need to know, New Parent: Your son can decide for himself whether he wants to cut off the neonatal equivalent of 15 square inches of flesh from his penis when he's no longer a neonate. It isn't your body. Get your filthy hands off it.

Now what? Maybe a little discussion on finance reform?

I dunno. I am cynical and I don't mind saying so. However, I also realize there is plenty of discussion in that way that bad lawyers do. Parse a few words here, parse a few there. Distract the court, send the discussion down some rat hole. But of course it isn't this side that engages in such nonsense. Rather it's THEM that talk about circumcision to prevent an unlikely UTI or to help some unknown, possibly unborn future wife or girlfriend's chances of cancer that takes the discussion down the deepest rat hole of all. Like any good lawyer, I counter the bullshit and redirect the discussion to the issues at hand. So yeah, there's lots to say beyond the "filthy hands" argument if only because as long as they keep talking we gotta keep talking.

And so with that, how about this: Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies reportedly has published an analysis of causes of infant death in America. It would appear that neonatal circumcision is statistically tied with SIDS as a leading cause of death in the first 28 days of life at around 115 per year or 1 in every 77 neonatal deaths. How many octogenarians (after a long life) are we saving from penile cancer by circ'ing them as defenseless infants? I doubt it's even a speculative 115 per year, and if it were, it isn't worth 115 lives not lived.

As soon as the pdf is available, you'll find it at the top of the page.

Link: Infant circumcision causes 100 deaths each year in US

INTACTIVISM: A new technique to thwart a new justification to harm infant boys (file under amusing and disturbing displays)

I have to say I was seriously concerned at how this might end. I'm happy to forewarn you that no one got hurt ... at least on camera. I literally can't wait until we have a display like this at an AIDS conference with the intactivist's message. LITERALLY CAN'T WAIT!

Apologies if you have strong opinions on abortion.

Link: Philip Huang on YouTube

THE OBSERVER: Thousands face agony or death after Zulu king's circumcision decree

Thousands face agony or death after Zulu king's circumcision decree

Health campaigners say the traditional manhood ritual, which carries HIV risks, should be replaced by operations in hospital [An unfortunate subtitle as the article would seem to argue the whole circumcision-prevents-AIDS approach is flawed.]

Alex Duval Smith

The Observer, Sunday 17 January 2010

An edict by the king of the Zulus to bring back circumcision for thousands of teenage boys is causing alarm in South Africa, amid record numbers of deaths from the traditional manhood ritual.

On Tuesday, at a meeting called in Durban by the government of KwaZulu-Natal, traditional leaders in the province will outline how they wish to implement King Goodwill Zwelithini's decision to reintroduce circumcision 200 years after it was scrapped by King Shaka. But health officials working with South Africa's second largest tribe, the Xhosa – who never gave up the practice – say the move could put thousands of lives at risk. 

...

King Zwelithini claims to be reintroducing circumcision for Zulu boys because there is evidence that the practice sharply reduces HIV transmission. However, with a Zulu president in power, it is likely that the king is equally motivated by a desire to bolster his nation.

...

The tradition also places a tremendous financial burden on poor families. Goats, blankets and bottles of Viceroy brandy and Smirnoff vodka must be bought. After initiation, a young man must be bought a suit and cap and must throw away his entire wardrobe, including underwear, shoes, school uniform and school bag from his boyhood. Even his mobile phone must go.

...

More.

The headline says it all.

(While this article is quite accurate, it shows that even generally well informed reporters get it badly wrong as evidenced in this quote, "Other health benefits linked to circumcision include reduced rates for penile, cervical and possibly prostate cancer." In fact, none of these cancers are reduced by male circumcision, and a recent study has shown that evidence that circumcision reduces most STDs is virtually nil.)

CRAZYTOWN: The fringe benefits of spousal abuse

I used to be in an abusive relationship. While it wasn't one that I sought out, neither was it one I sought to escape. You see, through all the beat downs and late nights in the ER, I found there were fringe benefits that came with the black eyes, broken teeth, and lost time from work. For example, I learned that I had syphilis once while they were stitching up my left eye one particularly late evening. One particular hospital I ended up in had a really great program where they tested everyone who came through their doors for diabetes, screened for heart disease, and even gave tips on a proper diet. It was great. For me, getting my ass beat regularly was the best way to ensure that I actually got the medical services I wouldn't or couldn't get otherwise. I think of all the screening and treatment for conditions I didn't know I had as a fringe benefit of my abusive relationship. If I hadn't gotten beat, I wouldn't have accessed services and learned just how off the charts my cholesterol was. Thank you, abusive spouse. Me and my health are gonna miss you.

Link: KENYA: The fringe benefits of male circumcision rollout