About 45,000 Jamaicans are living with HIV/AIDS and for every five people who start Anti-Retroviral Treatment, 10 new infections occur.
Yet, since 2007, UNAIDS has reported that male circumcision can reduce a man's chances of contracting HIV/AIDS by as much as 50-60 per cent. Circumcised penises are simply easier to keep clean and provide a less favourable environment for the very fragile HIV virus to grow and thrive. Amazingly, this life-saving information has barely trickled out of any of the Ministry of Health's "conduits" (lubricated or otherwise).
The anti-buggery law and laws against private, adult consensual sex work not only violate the right to privacy of men who have sex with men (MSM) and the right to work of sex workers, but these laws also contribute to the spread of HIV-AIDS by driving MSM and sex workers underground away from effective HIV-AIDS prevention, treatment and care interventions.
At the same time, the government has cut spending on HIV-AIDS programmes by 23 per cent in the new fiscal year. The result of such mismatched policies will inevitably mean that HIV/AIDS will continue to spread and achieve pandemic proportions in certain populations, imperilling our health-care system already on life support.
If the government is serious about sparing the health sector from an impending crisis, then I urge it to adopt the following:
* Promote male circumcision.
* Repeal the laws against buggery and private, consensual adult sex work.
These desperate financial times require our leaders to make such bold if unpopular decisions in Jamaica's interest.
Maurice Tomlinson
maurice_tomlinson@yahoo.com
2 comments:
In Europe, almost no-one circumcises unless they're Muslim or Jewish, and they have significantly lower rates of almost all STI's including HIV.
Even in Africa, there are six 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.
ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful, Condoms) is the way forward. Promoting genital surgery will cost lives, not save them.
Please please - retract this statement/editorial and/or also post this:
Circumcision may not cut HIV spread among gay men
http://msmasia.org/news_article/items/circumcision_may_not_cut_hiv_spread_among_gay_men.html
The data behind the early survey and trials upon which the "circumcision as prevention tool" was first introduced and subsequent positions take are of questionable sound, scientific reasoning, many believe.
But many, many experts doubt that circumcision is useful for HIV transmission reduction for men who have sex with men and gay men.
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