A blog about the 16th International AIDS Conference, Toronto, Canada, August 13-18, 2006.
Razib over at Gene Expression has an excellent post about cultural issues affecting HIV and circumcision, elaborating on Lindsay's mention here of the limitations of trying to increase circumcision as a way to reduce viral spread:
There was a strong undercurrent of resistance to the approach throughout the session. It finally erupted during the question period. One man asked the panelists whether they considered circumcision a form of mutilation, and what kind of counseling or support services they would put in place to offset the traumatic effects of the surgery? When Auvert pointed out that all the studies are looking at voluntary, adult male circumcision, the man retorted, "It's not because you're an adult that you might not be traumatized by the loss of your foreskin." This is an extreme example, but several social scientists chastised the panelists for "decontextualizing" the debate about circumcision, and rallied against the label "biological technology," as some of the panelists had referred to it.
All prevention efforts must take culture into consideration, but because of the extreme and irreversible nature of circumcision, and the intermingling of the practice with significant cultural traditions in many areas, clearly it's a tougher sell than something like condom use. Whether it will play a significant role in future prevention efforts or not is difficult to tell.
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