South Africa Leads the Continent on Gay Rights

via theatlantic, by John Campbell

Unfortunately, much of sub-Saharan Africa is homophobic. Recent legislation, some proposed, some passed, condemns gay marriage and sometimes outlaws gay sexual activity.

Nigeria, Uganda, and Liberia all have such legislation pending or passed, often with the provision of draconian penalties. Such legislation appears to be very popular.

The exception is South Africa, with a constitution that provides among the most comprehensive protection of individual rights in the world.

Last week, a regional court magistrate sentenced four men convicted of murdering a 19-year old lesbian in 2006 to eighteen years in prison, with four years suspended. The sentencing was widely hailed by the human rights community.

The trial and sentencing took place in Khayelitsha, a grim township outside of Cape Town and an area of severe social deprivation.

Certainly there is homophobia in South Africa. The Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini, was quoted in the South African press as saying, "Traditionally, there were no people who engaged in same-sex relationships. There was nothing like that and, if you do it, you must know that you are rotten."

But, the acceptability of homophobia in South Africa appears to be low. Following outcry, the Zulu Royal Household issued a public statement saying that the king was a victim of a "reckless translation" of his remarks from Zulu to English.

The household spokesman said, "At no stage did His Majesty condemn gay relations or same sex relations."

Meanwhile, in Uganda, where a particularly draconian piece of anti-gay legislation is working its way through parliament again, former South African president Thabo Mbeki said publicly that what consenting adults do in private "is really not the matter of law."

He also recalled that the apartheid regime in South Africa had prohibited sexual relations across the color line, and that it provided the police with the authorization "to raid peoples' bedrooms."


Read the rest

South Africa: Stop 'Corrective Rape'

‘Corrective rape’, the vicious practice of raping lesbians to ‘cure’ their sexuality, is a crisis in South Africa.

Millicent Gaika, pictured above, was bound, strangled, and repeatedly raped in an attack last year. But brave South African activists are risking their lives to ensure that Millicent’s case sparks change. Their appeal to the Minister of Justice has exploded to over 140,000 signatures, forcing him to respond on national television.

If enough of us join in to amplify and escalate this campaign, we could help get urgent action to end 'corrective rape'. Let's call on President Zuma and the Minister of Justice to publicly condemn ‘corrective rape’, criminalise hate crimes, and lead a critical shift against rape and homophobia.

Sign the petition and read the original article here.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Five Best Quotes for Full LGBT Equality

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family.

Today marks Archbishop Desmond Tutu's last official day as someone publicly engaged in human rights work. The good bishop, who has been pushing for equality among races, genders and sexual orientations for decades, is set to retire today, capping off a legendary career that has made him a worldwide icon for peace and justice.

Though Archbishop Desmond Tutu may be most closely associated with ending apartheid and championing racial justice and reconciliation in South Africa, the Archbishop has become a leading supporter of full LGBT equality in recent years. Commenting on his Tutu's retirement, even U.S. President Barack Obama noted the work that the Archbishop has done to benefit LGBT rights worldwide.

Read the rest...

Semenya to Keep Gold Metal, No Matter What!

Even if South African track star Caster Semenya does have both boy and girl parts, she's still a gold medal winner: The International Association of Athletics Federations ruled she can keep the gold medal she won in August in Berlin. But the bigger news? The results of the investigation into Semenya's gender (!) will be kept private. Read the rest at Queerty.

Policing Caster Semenya's gender

Athlete forced to undergo "gender verification testing"

via xtra.ca, by Shawn Syms

Hair above her upper lip. The deep timbre of her voice. A muscular build. Her flatter-than average chest. A growing fixation on these corporeal cues is replacing the cheers that first met teenaged South African athlete Caster Semenya when she took the 800m gold medal at the world championship in Berlin last Wednesday.

Eighteen-year-old Semenya, who grew up in the village of Fairlee in South Africa's rural Limpopo province, has been forced to undergo "gender verification testing" at the hands of a team that includes an endocrinologist, gynecologist, internal-medicine specialist and a psychologist.

As a long-time member of the queer community, I've met a lot of women with deep voices and/or facial hair. In fact, across most people I've met I've seen a wide range of behaviour and self-presentation across the spectrum of culturally defined "masculine" and "feminine" traits, regardless of whether a person identified as a man or a woman. Or defined themselves in some other way.

Read the rest.

High-risk HPV infection raises HIV risk at least fourfold: HPV vaccine study suggested

Infection with one or more of the cancer-causing subtypes of the human papilloma virus (HPV) multiplied the risk of acquiring HIV among young men in by 4.5-fold in a randomised controlled study of circumcision in South Africa.

Bertran Auvert, the principal investigator of the ANRS1265 circumcision trial in Orange Farm, South Africa, hinted that he was proposing a trial of one of the HPV vaccines as a method of reducing HIV infection.

The substudy of HPV infection collected swabs for DNA analysis from 1683 men and tested them for the presence of 13 of the high-risk, cancer-causing subtypes of HPV and 24 of the low-risk wart-forming ones. HPV samples were collected when the study terminated, 21 months after participants were circumcised.

Observed HPV prevalence was related to the risk of seroconversion during the study and the researchers also related it for the purposes of multivariate analysis to the participants’ age, education level, number of sexual partners, condom use, and whether they had TB or other sexually transmitted infections including herpes, gonorrhoea and chlamydia.

Read the rest at AIDSMAP.

Sexy new HIV prevention campaign for South African gays

Cape Town, via PlusNews

Dance music pumps from large speakers while a half dozen shirtless young men serve drinks at a bar bathed in pink light. It is the last weekend of Gay Pride in Cape Town, South Africa, and men of all ages have come to a "fetish party" to launch a safe-sex campaign, "Play Nice", targeting men who have sex with men (MSM).

Whether bound in black leather straps or attired in khakis and collared shirts, everyone here is bombarded by projected images of gay men, many nude, carrying messages about HIV, safe sex and treatment; posters with more messages liberally adorn the walls.

The campaign is run by Health4Men, a programme of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) of the Johannesburg-based Witwatersrand University aimed at men in underserved populations, including MSM and unemployed young men, and is the first large-scale campaign specifically geared to get HIV-related messaging to the MSM community.

The MSM community has historically had a very low profile in the HIV/AIDS conversation in Africa, despite having an HIV prevalence rate two to three times higher than the heterosexual population.

Glenn De Swardt, co-director of Health4Men and a leading expert on gay issues in South Africa, said the project could not have come at a better time. "Even though they have the information, they're not practicing safe sex consistently - we know it and they know it - so we're tying to make safe sex messaging sexier."

Using the internet, mobile phone technology, traditional media and direct campaigns, Play Nice hopes to reach various groups of MSM in novel, pro-sex ways that will appeal to them.

Read the rest.

The World's First Openly Gay (and HIV+) Supreme Court Justice

Check out the story on The Mad Professah Lectures

'YOU'RE FIRED!' IN SOUTH AFRICA HAS WORLD AGHAST

South African activists protest unjust dismissal of deputy minister of health Protesters support Madlala-Routledge on Wednesday.

More than 1,500 South African AIDS activists gathered Wednesday at a Cape Town cathedral to protest President Thabo Mbeki's unjust firing of Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, the now former Deputy Minister of Health and to demand that the government still implement National Strategic Plan (2007-2011). There is deep concern that the loss of a sane voice in the South African government on AIDS policy will undue the steps forward in recent months .

Legendary Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) leader Zackie Achmat, marched the group to Parliament to hand over a letter demanding Madlala-Routledge's reinstatement. The letter was denied.

"This is a deep, deep tragedy for the country, for democracy and above all for HIV-AIDS," Achmat said of Madlala-Routledge's dismissal.

Read the rest in the Housing Works AIDS Issues Update.


Read more LifeLube posts on this topic here

Millions of condoms recalled

[via The Sowetan, South Africa]

The Department of Health (DoH) is recalling millions of potentially defective condoms after a bribery scam Sowetan uncovered yesterday.

The department is also approaching the national treasury to take action in the scam. The treasury manages the contract for government supplied condoms.

Latex Surgical Products (LSP), manufacturer of the condoms distributed by its empowerment company Zalatex, must cease manufacturing condoms until a thorough investigation has been completed, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) said yesterday.

Health Department spokesman Charity Bhengu said late yesterday that the Sowetan expose had led it to recall more than 4,6 million condoms from warehouses and health facilities throughout the country.

Read the rest.

Read this related story, 'Defective condoms pass quality test."

Your advocacy needed for South Africa NOW

[please read the following update on the latest political turmoil in South Africa, courtesy of aidsmap, then TAKE ACTION]

South Africa is in turmoil over AIDS again this week, following the sacking of Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge by President Thabo Mbeki. His reasons? She attended an International AIDS Vaccine Initiative conference in Spain to argue for South African vaccine research without his permission, and criticised conditions in South African hospitals.

But underlying this spat is a struggle for power in South Africa not just over AIDS policy, but over control of the ruling ANC and the future direction of the presidency. Mbeky is due to relinquish the South African presidency in 2009, but is attempting to perpetuate his influence by retaining the presidency of the ANC, which comes up for re-election in December 2007.

In June the South African AIDS Conference heard optimistic messages about the future direction of AIDS policy in a country where government has all too often had its head firmly in the sand over the last decade.

Madlala-Routledge was instrumental in this sea-change, afforded the opportunity by the hospitalisation of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for a liver transplant. Doctors say the transplant was needed due to auto-immune hepatitis, but South Africa has been entertained and appalled this week by stories of another hospital stay by the Health Minister, during which much alcohol is alleged to have been consumed.

When Manto came back to work in June, she began to make life difficult for her deputy, Madlala-Routledge claimed in a one hour press conference last Friday. Madlala-Rotledge believes Manto set about isolating her from information and influence, using every opportunity to undermine her.

In late July Mbeki was said to be keeping out of the dispute, but less than three weeks later Madlala-Routledge was sacked, for not being a team player. Zackie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign told a South African newspaper to follow the money: Manto had used the threat of her husband’s influence (he is treasurer-general of the ANC) to get her way. Mbeki needs Msimang’s support in his bid to retain control of the ANC, but is also stubbornly resisting admitting that his Health Minister’s perverse approach to AIDS has been wrong right from the start.

Ironically, Mbeki’s bid to remove an opponent and appease a useful supporter may have done him huge damage. The influential trade union movement COSATU is concerned by the sacking, TAC has promised a series of national protests and few could be heard defending the President’s decision this week in South Africa.

-------------------

Please sign the online petition in support of Madlala-Routledge NOW http://www.thepetitionsite.com/3/support-for-nozizwe-madlala-routledge

Please encourage others to sign as well!

Outrage at Thabo Mbeki's Firing of South African Deputy Health Minister

Below is a letter from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago to South African President Thabo Mbeki regarding the firing of South Africa's deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, pictured at left.


Read today's scathing New York Times editorial - "Firing an AIDS Fighter" - on this outrage here.

Read the Treatment Action Campaign's statement on the matter here.

-------------------------------------------------------

President Thabo Mbeki August 13, 2007

South African Consulate General, Chicago

200 South Michigan Ave, 6^th Floor

Chicago, IL 60604

Via Facsimile: (312) 939-2588

Dear President Mbeki:

In solidarity with the millions of South Africans living with HIV/AIDS, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is writing to voice our deep concern regarding your recent dismissal of South Africa’s Deputy-Minister of Health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.

We commend Madlala-Routledge for leading the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa with a scientific and proactive approach. She has been outspoken about the efficacy and necessity of antiretroviral drugs and has set an important example for the people of South Africa by publicly taking a voluntary and confidential HIV test. Madlala-Routledge has proven instrumental in enacting recent legislation to fight the epidemic, including the launch of the National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections for 2007 to 2011 and the re-launch of the South African National AIDS Council.

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s promotion of nutrition and traditional medicines in place of proven-effective antiretroviral treatments not only stands in contrast to overwhelming scientific evidence, but undermines Madlala-Routledge’s efforts. With the dismissal of Madlala-Routledge, the world is forced to question the South African Government’s commitment to a vigorous, evidence-based approach to HIV/AIDS.

We urge you to prioritize sound and humanitarian public health policy and to put the health of your people first. As South Africa has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world, fighting HIV/AIDS must remain a prominent issue for your administration.

Sincerely,

Mark Ishaug

President and CEO

References:

AIDSTruth.org

The Kaiser Family Foundation, “The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in South Africa” Fact Sheet, June 2007: http://www.kff.org/hivaids/upload/7365_03.pdf

South Arica’s Treatment Action Campaign (TAC): www.tac.org.za

South Africa Department of Health: www.doh.gov.za

UNAIDS, South Africa Country Page: http://www.unaids.org/en/Regions_Countries/Countries/south_africa.asp

South Africa's TAC releases briefing on male circumcision

Thought this briefing from South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign regarding male circumcision would be of interest to you.
Jim

---------------------------------------------













Zachie Achmat, TAC Chairperson


Treatment Action Campaign
Electronic Newsletter

15 April 2007

Male circumcision and HIV prevention:
A TAC Briefing1

The World Health Organisation has recommended that male medical circumcision is an important part of HIV prevention efforts.2 To understand male circumcision and its role in HIV prevention, we need to consider its scientific, ethical and operational consequences.

The scientific evidence is clear: in a high HIV prevalence society there are considerable health benefits that far outweigh the small risks if male circumcision is carried out safely and properly. However, there are complex ethical and operational issues to consider when implementing a public health circumcision programme.

This briefing makes the following recommendations for TAC branches to consider:

We must have accurate information to make informed decisions about circumcision and have access to safe health services that offer circumcision. Therefore, the Department of Health must provide widely distributed accurate information to the public on the role of medical circumcision in HIV prevention. Medical circumcision should be offered free of charge at selected widely advertised health facilities across the country and must be coupled with the highest standard of HIV counselling and testing. The state must also make sure that traditional and religious circumcisions are carried out safely and in accordance with national and provincial laws governing circumcision.

What is male medical circumcision?

Male circumcision is a surgical procedure to remove the foreskin of a male’s penis. This practice has been carried out for religious and cultural reasons for thousands of years. Male circumcision must be distinguished from female genital mutilation, still carried out in some countries, which is universally condemned as a violation of human rights and has a serious adverse impact on women’s health, dignity and autonomy.3

By medical circumcision we mean that the foreskin is removed under hygienic conditions and anaesthetic by a trained person using surgical tools and techniques accepted by the medical profession.

What does science tell us about male circumcision and health?

Scientific research shows important health benefits of circumcision, especially in high HIV prevalence areas. Here is a brief description of both the benefits and risks of circumcision.

Health benefits of circumcision

Circumcision reduces a heterosexual male's risk of contracting HIV. This has been conclusively demonstrated in three controlled studies.4 These studies, all conducted in Africa, randomly divided a large group of uncircumcised heterosexual HIV-negative male volunteers into two groups, one of which was then circumcised. The two groups were counselled on safer sex and followed up over a period of time.

A study of 3,274 men in Orange Farm, South Africa showed a reduced risk of HIV infection of 60%. The trial participants were followed up for an average of 18 months.5

A similar study of 2,784 men in Kisuma, Kenya showed a reduced risk of about 53% after an average follow-up of two years.6

A similar study of 4,996 men in Rakai, Uganda showed a reduced risk of 55% after an average follow-up of two years.7

There is some evidence8 that female partners of circumcised HIV-positive men are less likely to contract HIV than female partners of uncircumcised HIV-positive men. A Ugandan study observed the rate of HIV infection between couples in which the male partners were HIV-positive and the female partners were HIV-negative. The partners of uncircumcised HIV-positive men were much more likely to contract HIV.9

There is some evidence from studies in the United States and East Africa that circumcised men are less likely to get penile cancer than uncircumcised men.10,11,12

There is some evidence from a study in the United States that circumcised boys are less likely to get urinary tract infections than uncircumcised boys.13

There is some evidence from two studies that female partners of circumcised men have a lower risk of contracting cervical cancer.14,15 This is possibly because uncircumcised men are more likely to infect their partners with the human papilloma virus.

There is some evidence that circumcised men are less likely to get some sexually transmitted infections such as genital ulcers, syphilis and gonorrhea.16,17

Circumcised men do not get the medical conditions phimosis (inability to retract foreskin) and paraphimosis (swelling of the protracted foreskin).


Health risks of circumcision

Complications occur in a small percentage of medical circumcisions because it is a surgical procedure. In the vast majority of cases these are resolved. In rare instances deaths have occurred.18,19

Some men who are circumcised report that their sexual functioning has decreased or that their penises are less sensitive after circumcision. A study has shown that men with foreskins have greater penile sensitivity. However, some men also report improved satisfaction after circumcision. There is a wide variety of reactions, both positive and negative, that men experience after circumcision. 20,21,22

During the period in which the penis is healing after circumcision (about a month), the risk of transmission from an HIV-positive man to an HIV-negative female partner might be higher than for uncircumcised men. This is a preliminary result of the circumcision study described above in Rakai, Uganda, but the result was not statistically significant. This shows the importance of counselling men to abstain from sex while their penis is healing from the circumcision.23

The health benefits of circumcision in South Africa are substantial, but there are ethical and operational issues that also need to be considered.

What are the ethics of circumcision

Circumcision is for practical purposes irreversible. It permanently changes a man's body, causes significant physical pain and, at least in some cases, reduces his penile sensation. This raises three questions: Is it ethical to promote circumcision? Is it ethical to carry out circumcisions on children who might regret being circumcised at some point in their lives? Is it possible that the HIV prevention benefit of circumcising an infant boy today will be redundant by the time the child is sexually active because an HIV vaccine might exist?

These are not easy questions to resolve. However, we live in a society with many new HIV infections daily. The wide use of medical circumcision is likely to help reduce new infections. Certainly if a vaccine with the efficacy of circumcision was developed, it would be implemented. We do not know if there will be an HIV vaccine ten, fifteen or even twenty years from now, or if that vaccine will be as effective as circumcision at reducing the risk of HIV infection.

Parents and guardians have a duty to provide essential medical care, such as vaccinations, to their children. However, in contrast to vaccination, circumcision causes physical distress and permanently and significantly changes a boy's physical appearance. Therefore it should be the choice of parents and guardians to determine whether or not to circumcise their infants. Children older than infants should only be circumcised if both they and their parents or guardians consent to it.

South Africa’s Children's Act includes a section on male circumcision which prohibits circumcision of males under 16 except when:

“performed for religious purposes in accordance with the practices of the religion concerned and in the manner prescribed; or performed for medical reasons on the recommendation of a medical practitioner.”

We recommend that children under 16 and older than infants should only be circumcised after proper counselling and with their assent. For children over 16 the law requires informed consent and proper counselling.

Operational issues of a public health circumcision programme

There are operational issues that must be considered before implementing circumcision as a public health measure.

Heterosexual men who are circumcised remain at high risk of contracting HIV if they do not use condoms during penetrative sex. Circumcision must be promoted in such a way that it does not lead men to believe that once they are circumcised they can have riskier sex.


Circumcision in the public health system offers an opportunity to counsel and test men for HIV. HIV counselling across the public health system is currently often poor and unstandardised. But because of the threat that circumcision might be interpreted as a license to have unprotected sex, it is important that the counselling that is offered when men get circumcised is very good and standardised. By offering testing coupled with counselling, more men can find out their HIV status and, if they test positive, can immediately enroll in the public sector's monitoring and treatment programme.

Boys and young men in South Africa are usually circumcised as part of religious or traditional ceremonies. These circumcisions are seldom done by medical experts. Often they are perfomed under non-hygenic conditions. They are hardly ever done under anaesthetic and there have been many reports of incompetence that resulted in boys being hospitalised. It is not clear if the health benefits outweigh the risks for boys who have been circumcised in this way. It will also not be easy to convince people who wish to have their children circumcised religiously or traditionally to rather do so using the health system. Traditional and religious male circumcision rites should be allowed, but the state must ensure they are carried out safely and in accordance with national and provincial laws governing circumcision. Traditional or religious circumcisions must be conducted safely using hygenic surgical equipment by people who have been appropriately trained. There are laws enacted in three provinces to govern standards of traditional circumcisions, such as the Application of Health Standards in Traditional Circumcision Act in the Eastern Cape, and these must be enforced.

On the other hand, many people do not choose to circumcise their boy children or themselves. It remains to be seen if there will be any uptake of a circumcision programme offered in the public health system and promoted by the state.

Although circumcision is a relatively safe surgical procedure, complications can occur. Circumcision should therefore be offered by the state at public health facilities with surgical facilities meeting acceptable standards. The Department of Health must make sure these facilities are developed in districts where they do not currently exist.



1 Drafted by Nathan Geffen with extensive assistance from Mark Heywood including direct use of text from a draft paper by Heywood. Thank you to various scientists with expertise on circumcision for reviewing this briefing. Primary reference: World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank. 2007. Information package on male circumcision and HIV Prevention. Download this collection of four fact sheets from http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/malecircumcision/en/index.html

2 WHO and UNAIDS announce recommendations from expert consultation on male circumcision for HIV prevention. 2007/3/28. http://www.who.int/hiv/mediacentre/news68/en/index.html

3 In the rest of this briefing we only consider male circumcision and therefore we only use the term circumcision without qualifying it as male.

4 These controlled studies confirmed what had been observed in several uncontrolled studies, i.e. that circumcised men have a lower risk of contracting HIV heterosexually. E.g. Bailey et al. 2001. Male circumcision and HIV prevention: current knowledge and future research directions. Lancet Infect Dis. 1(4):223-31 and Howe. 1999. Circumcision and HIV infection: review of the literature and meta-analysis. International Journal of STD & AIDS, 10(1) pp. 8-16(9). http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/rsm/std/1999/00000010/00000001/art00003

5 Auvert et al. 2005. Randomized, controlled intervention trial of male circumcision for reduction of HIV infection risk: the ANRS 1265 Trial. PLoS Med. 2005 Nov;2(11):e298. Epub 2005 Oct 25. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16231970&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum

6 Bailey et al. 2007. Lancet. Feb 24;369(9562):643-56. Male circumcision for HIV prevention in young men in Kisumu, Kenya: a randomised controlled trial. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17321310&query_hl=5&itool=pubmed_docsum


7 Gray et al. 2007. Lancet. Feb 24;369(9562):657-66. Male circumcision for HIV prevention in men in Rakai, Uganda: a randomised trial. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17321311&query_hl=7&itool=pubmed_docsum

8 The term “some evidence” in this briefing means that a strong correlation has been observed between a health benefit or risk and circumcision but that no controlled study has been done. It is possible therefore that the observed benefit or risk might be confounded by other factors.

9 Gray et al. 2000. Male circumcision and HIV acquisition and transmission: cohort studies in Rakai, Uganda. Rakai Project Team. AIDS. 20;14(15):2371-81. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=11089626&query_hl=31&itool=pubmed_docsum

10 Schoen et al. 2000. The Highly Protective Effect of Newborn Circumcision Against Invasive Penile Cancer. Pediatrics 2000;105;e36. http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/105/3/e36

11 American Academy of Pediatrics. 1989. Report of the task force on circumcision. Pediatrics 84: 388-91.

12 Dodge OG, Kaviti JN. Male circumcision among the peoples of East Africa and the incidence of genital cancer. East Afr Med J 1965;42:98-105.

13 Wiswell and Hachey. 1993. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 1993 Mar;32(3):130-4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed

14 Castellsagué et al. 2002. Male Circumcision, Penile Human Papillomavirus Infection, and Cervical Cancer in Female Partners. NEJM. Volume 346:1105-1112. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/346/15/1105

15 Agarwal et al. 1993. Role of male behavior in cervical carcinogenesis among women with one lifetime sexual partner. Cancer. 1993 Sep 1;72(5):1666-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed

16 Nasio et al. 1996. Genital ulcer disease among STD clinic attenders in Nairobi: association with HIV-1 and circumcision status. International Journal of STD & AIDS, 7(6) pp. 410-414(5) http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/rsm/std/1996/00000007/00000006/art00006

17 Lavreys et al. 1999. Effect of Circumcision on Incidence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases: A Prospective Cohort Study of Trucking Company Employees in Kenya. Journal of Infectious Diseases. 180:330-336. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JID/journal/issues/v180n2/981351/981351.text.html?erFrom=1394502535901838305Guest

18 Williams and Kapila. 1993. Br J Surg. Oct;80(10):1231-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8242285&dopt=Citation

19 Also see the complications reported in the HIV circumcision trials referenced earlier.

20 Sorrells et al. 2007. Fine-touch pressure thresholds in the adult penis. BJU Int. Apr;99(4):864-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed

21 Fink et al. 2002. Adult circumcision outcomes study: effect on erectile function, penile sensitivity, sexual activity and satisfaction. J Urol. 167(5):2113-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=11956453&query_hl=18&itool=pubmed_docsum

22 Masood et al. 2005. Penile sensitivity and sexual satisfaction after circumcision: are we informing men correctly? Urol Int. 75(1):62-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16037710&query_hl=18&itool=pubmed_docsum

23 Rakai Health Sciences Program. 2007/03/06. Press release titled: Study Presents New Information on Male Circumcision to Prevent Spread of HIV in Africa: Preliminary data highlight importance of wound healing and effects on women.


[END OF BRIEFING]

Table Mountain, Cape Town