ATLANTA, GA: CDC taking submissions on male genital cutting

RollCall
December 1, 2014

To Cut or Not to Cut: CDC Poised to Offer Circumcision Guidance

by Paul Jenks
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday will unveil new guidance on health outcomes relating to elective male circumcision. The agency has been developing counseling guidance for health care providers based upon recent clinical trials and reports that have demonstrated some effectiveness of circumcision in reducing the risk of HIV and several sexually transmitted diseases. The report will also address social, ethical and religious factors relating to circumcision. A notice opening up a 45-day comment period on the looming guidance text will be published on Tuesday.

A recent federal survey indicated 88 percent of non-Hispanic white men and 79 percent of non-Hispanic black men are circumcised but the rates are lower for other ethnicities. [Those are prevelance - proportion of males who are cut - figures, but the incidence - proportion of babies being cut today - is much lower.] However, the study also notes that many of those surveyed did not correctly identify whether they are circumcised.