Posted on 04/04/2007 11:49:14 PM PDT by neverdem
New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is planning a campaign to encourage men at high risk of AIDS to get circumcised in light of the World Health Organization’s endorsement of the procedure as an effective way to prevent the disease.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is just beginning to convene meetings and design studies to help it formulate a national policy, New York City is moving ahead on its own.
In the United States, “New York City remains the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city’s health commissioner, said in an interview. Referring to H.I.V., he said, “In some subpopulations, you have 10 to 20 percent prevalence rates, just as they do in parts of Africa.”
His department has started asking some community groups and gay rights organizations to discuss circumcision with their members, and has asked the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs city hospitals and clinics, to perform the procedure at no charge for men without health insurance.
A spokeswoman for the corporation said it was “having conversations” with the health department but had not reached a decision.
“As you know, the research on this is pretty recent,” the spokeswoman, Ana Marengo, said.
In three recent clinical trials in Africa, circumcision was shown to lower a man’s risk of contracting the virus from heterosexual sex by about 60 percent. On March 28, the World Health Organization officially recommended that countries adopt the procedure as part of their AIDS prevention plans.
No spontaneous outcry for circumcision has arisen in New York, Dr. Frieden conceded.
“This is not something that has a lot of buzz,” he said.
But he added that even 1,000 circumcisions in the right subgroups might slow the spread of AIDS.
For example, in Manhattan...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Before embarking on these 21st Century imperatives, trans-fat bans, electronic medical records, etc, Commish Frieden should first take care of 17th Century Health Imperatives and get rid of the ubiquitous rats in NYC.
“Nonetheless, Dr. Frieden said, it is logical to assume that circumcision would offer protection in some types of gay sex.”
He “assumes”. The means of transmittion is different. The predominant HIV virus sub-type is different. Countless other factors, such as hygiene level in Africa compared to NY are vastly different. But Dr. Frieden assumes that all those factors are irrelevant, and he will make a recommendation based on those assumptions. What a moron.
Here’s a study conducted by U.S. military in 2004 on the western population, which found that circumcision does not decrease the risk of HIV infection. In fact the numbers show that it slightly increased the risk.
http://www.iasociety.org/abstract/show.asp?abstract_id=2176002
Interestingly I couldn’t see a single news article about this study at the time, unlike the billion articles posted about the studies performed in the darkest parts of Africa that are of little importance for the U.S. population.
This is not good news to the “foreskin forever” crowd.
LOL!
No vaccinations for you, either, I take it?
God didn’t make man infallible. Or perfect. Why else do you think kids are born with genetic mutations? Or develop incorrectly and wind up disfigured or missing a vital component in life.
Having a perfect Creator doesn’t mean one necessarily has to have a perfect life or even start off that way. The blessing of life itself is enough, I would hope.
Abstinence will work. Circumcision won’t.
Foreskin isn’t perfect because it can be diseased or infected? Guess what, so can any other tissue or body part. So why stop at cutting off just the foreskin?
Btw the chance of getting penile cancer is down to essentially zip, period. It’s a very rare form of cancer in uncircumcised men as well.
Maybe so, but I still prefer to place my trust in God’s design skills and leave things as he wanted them!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I see no sense whatever in your post, we are not talking about something that affects a few, we are talking about something that is as natural a part of a male body as a fingertip and there is no reason that everyone needs to have it removed. You can peddle that line somewhere else.
In view of the fact that circumcision is an Islamic practice as well as a Jewish practice it is hard to make a lot of sense out of what you say. Circumcision has been practiced in many cultures as has tattooing, piercing etc. There is certainly no legitimate reason to force it on anyone and to say otherwise indicates depravity. It should be a choice, not something done to an infant who has no say in the matter.
God didn’t make man infallible. Or perfect. Why else do you think kids are born with genetic mutations? Or develop incorrectly and wind up disfigured or missing a vital component in life.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This is what I was referring to in my other reply to you but somehow I pasted a line from someone else.
so according to this article, somehow circumcision is supposed to be a homosexual thing? (see the article’s references to high risk behavior)
THATS going to make the rabbis happy,,,,NOT.
I hope that is a typo. If not, I would think that simple fact alone should be enough to curtail the high risk behaviors.
Bravo. That was brilliant.
Abstinance does not provide for a funding of a program.
What you have is a bureacrat who is trying to solicit for more money to fund a job security program for themselves.
This is no different than saying the health departent needs more money to promote c-sections for births because they reduce complications from birthing. (and get the doctor’s off to their T times promptly)
This has NOTHING to do with health, this is just about money.
New York ought to try cutting taxes before cutting foreskin.
Well, of course there was meaning to my post. The human body isn’t perfect. I’ve yet to see any use whatsoever in having an appendix, other than one day having one rupture on you. And I don’t know another animal in existence that is as atherosclertoic as we are. Our bodies are pretty poor at handling lipids.
But you’re right, there’s no reason that everyone needs to have it removed, though it makes sense to do it if you don’t have a moral objection to it.
Removing a fingertip doesn’t decrease your risk of acquiring a urinary tract infection by 12x, ensure that you will never have penile cancer (not one of 50,000 cases was circumcised at birth in a study), or eliminate balamitis and phimosis, all of this with essentially zero side effects.
But there’s no sense in arguing over this. I see your point, and I’m the last person on earth who would be in favor of making it mandatory to circumcise.
Take care and God bless!
Their research seems to be fairly sound.
C.P. is on the same side as you on this topic.
Too much hyperbole.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.