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• Thursday, December 14, 2006 02:47 AM

  If we had a vaccine this good we'd roll it out today

  When I covered the results of the first studies coming out of Orange Farm in Soweto a year ago for a major medical journal, one quote stood out for me, from Dr Francois Venter, clinical director of Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit in South Africa, which has one of the highest AIDS rates in the country.

  He said, “If we had an AIDS vaccine this good, we would roll it out tomorrow,” he says. “There wouldn’t be a debate. We would vaccinate the whole country.”

  Adult men should be given the chance to make a thoroughly informed choice which outlines all the risks and benefits of circumcision as PART of their preventative strategy, which absolutely should still include condoms.

  The real issue is ensuring that circumcisions are done in clinically sterile conditions with proper aftercare, especially for those groups like the Xhosa and the Pedi (in South Africa) who include circumcision in their initiation rituals. Over 100 young men a year die in South Africa from secondary infections or botched circumcisions.

  Circumcision is not a magic bullet, but it could make a huge impact on the disease that is killing Africa.

  Give adults information. Let them make their own choices about how to best take care of their health.

  —Lauren Beukes
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