Saturday 9 June 2007

Ouch

"We don't have a cure yet so let's just cut off your foreskin," experts suggest as a solution to South Africa's AIDS crisis. While it is not a foolproof method to prevent AIDS, Neil Martinson, the deputy director of the Perinatal (what?) HIV Research Unit believes that male circumcision is so effective that it is "almost like a vaccine". However his arch nemesis,Timothy Quinlan, research director at HEARD does not approve of the mass circumcision programme and prefers the money to be spent on other ways to prevent HIV, which may or may not include sheepskin condoms and chastity belts. More can be found here.

Studies have shown that uncircumcised men are at higher risk of HIV infection due to the fact the foreskin contains soft non-keratinized (what?) tissue and cells that are more vulnerable to the virus. So apparently the foreskin falls under the same category as wisdom teeth and the appendix.

2 comments:

Jai said...

I have two out of three of those things. I'm livin' on the knife-edge of destiny, baby!

And, seriously, circumcision helps prevent AIDS?! That's almost zany. Are they sure it's not because the men who get their foreskin sliced off experience are miraculously unwilling to get their freak on with anyone until it heals up? Circumcision promotes abstinence! For a little while.

psychodevil said...

I wonder what happens to the foreskin. Will they like feed it to the lions?