The king of the Zulus has issued an edict to bring back circumcision in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, two hundred years after it was abolished.
King Goodwill Zwelithini claims to be reintroducing the practice because it reduces HIV transmission but evidence for its effectiveness is contentious, as I have discussed here, here and here.
The Xhosa, South Africa's second largest tribe after the Zulus, never gave up traditional circumcision. Uncut men are considered inkwenkwe - boys - who are not allowed to mix with the men. Hospital circumcisions do not count.
Health workers tell of the serious problems it causes including 'rotting penises, septicaemia and inadvertent castrations'. Other boys die of dehydration or hypothermia and, far from preventing the spread of HIV, circumcision can increase it as the same knife is used on a large group of boys. In the last year, 80 boys have died, including two suicides.
Researchers into traditional circumcision found that ‘in general, communities considered morbidity and mortality as par for the course. Interviewers were told that "deaths and injury were seen as a way of separating out those boys who were not fit to play the role of men in society." Compounding this 'natural selection' technique, another popular belief is that if an initiate suffers medical complications, he has brought it upon himself through some form of wrong doing, and is therefore being punished'.
On top of the health risks, the rituals place a heavy financial burden on poor families who have to come up with goats, blankets, alcohol and new clothes for the boy.
There is often criticism of Zulu men by the Xhosa for not being circumcised. In 2008, ANC politician Fikile Mbalula (a Zulu) succumbed to pressure and, at the age of 37, entered an initiation school where he was circumcised the traditional way. He later became deputy minister of police. These two events may not be linked but they may also suggest why the Zulu king wants to bring back circumcision. Zulus make up 21% of the population and Xhosa 17%; the difference is small enough for the Xhosa to exert considerable influence.
As I wrote previously, the South African government recognizes the health risk. In 2001 it passed an act requiring a license from a medical officer for each male circumcision. The act seems to be having little effect.
Given that the Xhosa circumcise for purely cultural reasons and the ritual is what counts, it seems unlikely that the Zulus will accept hospital circumcision.
Even if circumcision did protect the men, there is no evidence that it helps prevent transmission from HIV positive men to women, a concern reiterated by the Secretary General of the Treatment Action Campaign, herself a Xhosa. She commented that 'most new incidences of HIV are among women'.
A trial in Uganda reported in The Lancet found that rates of transmission to women increased with circumcised men. The trial had to be abandoned for ethical reasons.
In America, recent research has found that circumcision does not reduce transmission rates among gay men. Dr. Peter Kilmarx, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that circumcision "is not considered beneficial" in stopping the spread of HIV through gay sex.
Previous research has suggested circumcision doesn't make a difference when anal sex is involved. The latest study, by CDC researchers, looked at nearly 4,900 men who had anal sex with an HIV-infected partner and found the infection rate, about 3.5 percent, was approximately the same whether the men were circumcised or not. Presumably the same applies to men having anal sex with women.
KwaZulu Natal Province has one of the highest HIV infection rates of any South African province. If circumcision does not reduce transmission rates then thousands of young men's lives and well-being will have been put at risk for nothing. Women's lives will also be at risk as these men become their sexual partners. There is still no conclusive evidence that circumcision works any better than good hygiene.
The trial in The Lancet reported above concluded that ‘Condom use after male circumcision is essential for HIV prevention.’
Also here with full links.
http://layscience.net/trackback/906
You note "there is no evidence that it helps prevent transmission from HIV positive men to women." Well, there is a study Circumcision in HIV-infected men and its effect on HIV transmission to female partners in Rakai, Uganda: a randomised controlled trial that showed women have an increased risk of getting an HIV infection from circumcised men. They stopped the study early because the results did not support the circumcision campaign in Africa.
Thanks. I'll add that to the text.
By the way, I would like to point out that I did not choose that photo.
Circumcision is a dangerous distraction in the fight against AIDS. There are six African countries where men are *more* likely to be HIV+ if they've been circumcised: Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, and Swaziland. Eg in Malawi, the HIV rate is 13.2% among circumcised men, but only 9.5% among intact men. In Rwanda, the HIV rate is 3.5% among circumcised men, but only 2.1% among intact men. If circumcision really worked against AIDS, this just wouldn't happen. We now have people calling circumcision a "vaccine" or "invisible condom", and viewing circumcision as an alternative to condoms.
The South African National Communication Survey on HIV/AIDS, 2009 found that 15% of adults across age groups "believe that circumcised men do not need to use condoms".
The one randomized controlled trial into male-to-female transmission showed a 54% higher rate in the group where the men had been circumcised btw.
69 *people* died of male circumcision last year in just one province of South Africa.
ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful, Condoms) is the way forward. Promoting genital surgery will cost African lives, not save them.
In August the Ugandan research team finally admitted that the HIV+ men they cut were 50% MORE likely to transmit HIV than the HIV+ men they left intact were.
But how could it matter ato an infant, who doesn't have sex? Let males decide at a rational age about their own bodies, based on the best evidence at that future time.
Give up a huge amount of pleasure-receptivity for a tiny possible benefit, or use safer sex practices? A no-brainer if you ask me (nobody did, and I'm now missing the best part of my penis).
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I'll start off by saying that I'm strongly against circumcision... I think anybody who would call for circumcision of boys or girls has a personality profile of a monster.
On another note... in some of your previous articles you're implying that Catholics are
pro-circumcision. I disagree... I think the Phillipines is the only largely Catholic country where circumcision is practiced on a massive scale (it actually arose from local customs).
As far as I know in majority of Catholic countries (Latin America), circumcision is NOT practiced (or endorsed by the church). It is NOT practiced in Catholic parts of Europe. Circumcision is still associated with Muslims and Jews, and why would Catholics want to emulate them anyway?
I only agree with your statement that Catholic church is anti-condom and pro-abstinance. It's completely incorrect to say it is for circumcision (although there may be some individuals within the Catholic organizations who may be for it).
Which articles do you mean?
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