Bill Gates’ Donation For Circumcision
June 15, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Men's Health
Microsoft founder Bill Gates donated $50 million to a program to help circumcise up to 650,000 African men. Because some studies have shown that circumcision can significantly lower by more than half the incidence of HIV, this circumcision program was undertaken in Swaziland and Zambia.
This isn’t the first time that the Gates Foundation has contributed to this cause. Last year, the foundation donated $18.5 million to establish the Male Circumcision Consortium (MCC), a partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and EngenderHealth. This program focused on Kenya.
The World Health Organization, based on study findings, recommended voluntary circumcision as part of the HIV prevention programs. Of course, men still have to take other HIV prevention strategies, namely using condoms and becoming educated as to what causes HIV and how it is passed on.
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Image: Bauer Griffen
In Swaziland, the HIV rate among non-circumcised men is 19.5%, and among circumcised men, 21.8%. The figures are that way round in at least seven other African countries, according to the National Demographic and Health surveys (http://www.measuredhs.com/countries/). So tell us again how circumcising more men is going to make the HIV rate go down?
hi,
i do not think circumcision helps in aids/other std prevention. as hugh7 has commented before me there are data to show both for and against this theory. the data is not so greatly skewed in one way that we can say for definite. i think it is more of a judeo-christian way. since jews used to circumcise, religions that came after it but borrowed from it, like christians and muslims, also favor circumcision. but there is a whole wide world of hindus, buddhists and many more who do not circumcise and are not any more or less healthy than other people.
in the end, if nature has provided a body part to us, it has definitely provided it for a function. if it was not so, then it would have withered away as part of evolution the way our tails have gone away.
Circumcision to prevent HIV is a waste of money, especially if the way you convince men to have a circumcision is by telling them that it will make it safer to have sex with HIV+ people.
What is needed is a sexual rights education campaign. Most women in Swaziland, for example, are not aware that the morning-after pill has long term health implications, and anyway does not prevent HIV transmission.
The problem is in the culture. Once it is normal for both partners to expect and demand that a condom be used, the problem will solve itself.