BACKGROUND The World Health Organisation recommended the scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) as an additional HIV prevention method in 2007 and several countries with high HIV prevalence rates including Zimbabwe have since adopted the procedure. Since then researchers have been preoccupied with establishing the level of knowledge and acceptability of circumcision in communiti...

OBJECTIVE Genital neonatal herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection was observed in a series of neonates after traditional Jewish ritual circumcision. The objective of this study was to describe neonate genital HSV-1 infection after ritual circumcision and investigate the association between genital HSV-1 after circumcision and the practice of the traditional circumcision. METHODS Eight ...

Egyptian mummies and wall carvings offer some of the earliest recorded history of circumcision dating over 15,000 years ago. Ritualistic circumcision has been carried out in West Africa for over 5,000 years and in the Middle East for at least 3,000 years (Warner & Strashin, 1981). Muslims incorporated ritualistic circumcisions as a pubertal rite of passage into manhood among older boys. The tra...

Existing scientific evidence demonstrates potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision; however, these data are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision. In circumstances in which there are potential benefits and risks, yet the procedure is not essential to the child’s current well-being, parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child. To make an ...

Existing scientific evidence demonstrates potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision; however, these data are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision. In circumstances in which there are potential benefits and risks, yet the procedure is not essential to the child’s current well-being, parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child. To make an ...

Van Howe and Storm’s paper is commendable for asking valid questions regarding the scientific evidence upon which circumcision as an HIV prevention strategy is based.1 The paper however gives no real practical suggestions as to what the way forward should be regarding the already rolled out circumcision programs in Africa. Its position that the current circumcision programs amount to a waste of...

Circumcision of a male child was recently ruled illegal by a court in Germany on the grounds that it violates the child's rights to bodily integrity and self-determination. This paper begins by challenging the applicability of these rights to the circumcision debate. It argues that, rather than a sweeping appeal to rights, a moral analysis of the practice of circumcision will require a careful ...

BACKGROUND Interventions to increase demand for medical male circumcision are urgently needed in eastern and southern Africa. Following promising evidence that providing economic compensation can increase male circumcision uptake in Kenya, there is a need to understand the role of this intervention in individuals' decision-making regarding circumcision and explore perceptions of the interventio...

INTRODUCTION Safe male circumcision is an important biomedical intervention in the comprehensive HIV prevention programmes implemented in 14 sub-Saharan African countries with high HIV prevalence. To sustain its partial protective benefit, it is important that perceived reduced HIV risk does not lead to behavioural risk compensation among circumcised men and their sexual partners. This study ex...

Background: Male circumcision has been shown to reduce the risk of heterosexual transmission of HIV infection in men by up to 60% in three randomized controlled trials. However, little is known about the sexual behavior change of men who have been circumcised and whether the protective effect of circumcision leads to riskier sexual behavior. Objectives: To understand Swazi men’s perceptions of ...