Monday, December 29, 2014

MALAYSIA: Prime Minister Razak wants to export cutting technology

Kuala Lumpur Post
December 20, 2014

PM calls on local companies to export circumcision technology

PEKAN – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has suggested that local companies widened the circumcision technology not only within the country but also to export it so that the practice will receive response from abroad.

He said the practice of circumcision was not only compulsory among the Muslims but also believers of other religion such as the Jews.

“In fact in our country, even the non-Muslims consider circumcision as a good practice which should also be adopted by them,” he said when speaking at the mass circumcision ceremony for the Pekan parliamentary constituency, here Saturday.

The ceremony, organised by the Pekan Umno Religious Bureau and the Umno Malaysia Religious Bureau, was also attended by Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob.

Najib said if previously the ‘Tok Mudim’ was the most feared person by the children as they performed the circumcision in the traditional manner without the use of anesthetics, but with the latest technology such as the Flushcutter, Tara Clamp, Sunathrone and Laser Carbon dioxide, the feeling of pain during circumcision could be reduced.

“The elderly people in the past said that the pain from circumcision was just like the bite of an ant, but with the availability of various technology including the use of laser, the pain from circumcision could be reduced.

“Previously, those going for circumcision would soak themselves in the pool or river before dawn aimed at reducing the bleeding, shrinking the skin and cleansing themselves, that’s why they held mass bathing and we don’t deny the trauma that the children had to go through using the old method,” he said.

He said that the use of modern circumcision technology such as the Sunatech derived from research by a local could not only reduce the pain but also made the process simpler and safer.

“In fact, it only takes 10 minutes for one session and is a simple process without stitching, without bandaging and without pain.

“Children using this method of circumcision are said to be able to carry out their routine daily activities such as bathing, praying and it (the process) is most suitable for export abroad,” he said.

He said the government was prepared to cooperate with the company concerned to widen the circumcision method in the villages and rural areas especially in areas which was inaccessible to doctors.

Meanwhile, 328 children from within the Pekan parliamentary constituency were involved in the two-day free circumcision programme, reports Bernama.

UGANDA: Boy, 4, botches DIY cutting of younger boy

The Monitor (Uganda)
December 18, 2014

Boy's genitals chopped in mock circumcision

by Mudangha Kolyangha
A four-year-old child has almost left his three-year- old brother without genitals after he tried to circumcise him.

The incident happened in Kamonkoli, Budaka District.

Imitating the Bagisu cultural circumcision practice commonly known as Imbalu, the two boys were seen dancing, dressed in banana leaves, but few minutes later the younger one was found lying in a pool of blood.

The four year old self-made surgeon who can not be named because he’s a minor is said to have used a sharp razor blade to cut off the fore skin of his colleague’s genitals.

The child’s parents had to rush the child to Mbale hospital for proper circumcision and medical attention.

Officials at Mbale hospital confirmed the incident saying the boy is in a stable condition.
This is an even year and the male circumcision season is on.

The legendary ceremony among the Bagisu ethnic group marks the initiation of boys into manhood.

Following the launch of the imbalu season in Bugisu region in August, President Yoweri Museveni, one of the witnesses as courageous young men face the knife in the rite of passage to adulthood, pledged to promote the cultural ceremony for tourism purposes.

RWANDA: Boy dies, another has fistula after cutting

Inyenyeri News (Rwanda)
December 18, 2014

Rwanda: Families blame Circumcision for [Sickness and] Death of Children

by Venuste Mfitmana
Two families in Burera District whose children developed medical complications after undergoing circumcision recently have expressed their concerns over the safety of the procedure.

The parents of a six-year-old boy claim their son is suffering from urethrocutaneous fistula, an unusual developmental anomaly in children who present with an abnormal opening on the ventral aspect of the penis with a normal foreskin. [Obviously cut-and-pasted from a medical textbook. Urethrocutaneous fistula is also a known complication of circumcision.]

The medical complication came after the boy underwent circumcision during a campaign by the military that was held at Bungwe Health Centre in Burera in October.

This is likely to undermine government efforts to promote circumcision as one way of preventing HIV transmission.

The Ministry of Health launched free male circumcision programme in October 2011. However, last year, the ministry launched a national drive to “non-surgically” circumcise 700,000 boys and men aged 15 to 49 by the end of 2016.

The procedure involves using a plastic device called PrePex that comprises two rings and an elastic band that cuts off blood supply to the foreskin, which shrivels and is removed with the band after a week. [This may be knifeless, but it is still surgical.]

The boy’s parents have however alleged that the child received inadequate medical attention and poor treatment while he was suffering.

“After a few days of circumcision, our child started having complications every time he urinated, with pus coming from the wound where he was operated” the boy’s father said. “He also felt pain in his bladder, then urine started dripping through two small holes from his penis since his urinal valve (urethra) was damaged during surgery.

“When we realised that the problem was worsening and Bungwe Health Centre was no longer able to treat him, we were transferred to Butaro Hospital but they also failed to handle the problem.”

The case was later referred to Rwanda Military Hospital in Kanombe, Kigali. However, the aggrieved family claims the boy did not receive treatment at the hospital. Instead, they were advised to return to the hospital after six months.

“We believe there was carelessness in circumcising our child,” the mother added. “We are worried that our son’s condition may deteriorate in the absence of medicines and develop more complications.”

However, Dr Africa Gasana, a urological surgeon at the military hospital, who received the patient, explained to Rwanda Today why the child was not treated then.

“We gave the child six months to allow the wound to heal because we cannot operate on him when it is still fresh,” Dr Gasana said. “It is not the first time we have treated such ailment.”

On the parents’ fears of the boy developing other complications, the doctor said: “We gave them our phone number so that they can call us in case of another serious problem.

Aggrieved family
However, another aggrieved family claimed that their son died a few weeks after undergoing similar circumcision.

The boy’s father told Rwanda Today that the 19-year-old, who was circumcised using PrePex on October 13 during the same Army Week campaign at the health centre, died suddenly in unclear circumstances.

When he returned to hospital for check-up after a week, he developed medical complications on his way back home.

“On his way home, he felt tired and very sick,” the father said. “That night we took him to Manyagiro Health Centre but he was eventually transferred to Byumba Hospital where he died in the morning.
“When I asked the doctor what killed him, I was told that it was blood pressure.”

He said the boy had not suffered such an ailment before.

Cecile Mujawayezu, the nurse at Bungwe who did the pre-surgery screening on the boy, said he had no pre-existing medical condition.

“I screened the boy but I didn’t find any problem” Ms Mujawayezu said. “A medical autopsy showed he died of blood pressure; maybe he had it before, with low tension, which rose after he was circumcised for unknown reasons.” ["Blood pressure" is only a symptom. Could the boy have died of septic shock?]

However, the Ministry of Health maintains that, going by the procedures and medical examination, the cause of the death is not linked to circumcision.

“All the male procedures that have been undertaken, including outreach and campaigns, have been a success,” said Nathan Mugume, the head of Rwanda Health Communication Centre Division at the Ministry of Health. “They are done by experienced professionals.”

KENYA: Police search for 17 girl-cutters

The Counties (Kenya)
December 16, 2014

Police search for 17 FGM initiators

by Fred Kibor
Seventeen suspected Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) initiators have fled for fear of being arrested after they circumcised 31 girls over the weekend.

Deputy County Commissioner Hussein Alaso said they had received the names of the suspects from Tinyar and Kaptabukwo villages in Chugor sub-location.

"The county security team is looking for the suspects and will arrest them when found," he said.
Efforts by law enforcers to rescue the girls and arrest the perpetrators were thwarted on Saturday after local residents attacked police officers with stones while hurling curses at them.

"At the moment, there is little goodwill at the local level to end this outdated practice. However, once these suspects are arrested and charged, then residents will know that the Government is determined to put an end to this dehumanising act," Mr Alaso told The Standard.

The initiates are currently in seclusion in an unknown place after their previous hideout was exposed. Health personnel have urged locals to take them to hospital, saying the girls risked infection from exposure to unhygienic conditions. Health Executive Stephen Biwott said they had deployed health workers to be on standby in the area once the locals brought the initiates for medical attention.

Local MPs said while the incident was a setback in the fight against FGM, they would not relent.

TANZANIA: 120 girls flee cutting

Tanzania Daily News
December 15, 2014

Tanzania: More Than 100 Girls Flee From 'Knife' in Mara

by Mugini Jacob
Mugumu — NEARLY 120 girls have camped at a new safe house in Mugumu Town in Serengeti District after fleeing forced circumcision from different Mara Region villages.

"The number was 117 by Saturday and most of the girls have been badly beaten and injured for refusing to be circumcised", the Coordinator of the Serengeti We Can Live Without HIV/AIDS, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) project, which is run by the Mara Diocese of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, Ms Rhobi Samweli, said.

The girls started fleeing their homes early this month when the on-going female genital mutilation (FGM) season kicked off in various parts of Mara Region.

"The girls we have here are coming from villages in Tarime, Serengeti and Butiama districts. We are feeding them but some come without even clothes, so we had to buy them clothes", Ms Rhobi said.
Those who were received with injuries were also taken to Mugumu District Designated Hospital for treatment, according to the official.

According to Ms Rhobi , the Police Force, through its gender desk, is showing good cooperation in protecting the girls. Establishment of the new safe house in Mugumu is designed to address the problem of FGM and other forms of GBV acts in Serengeti District.

It is part of the outcome of an ambitious anti-GBV, FGM and HIV/ AIDS implemented in the district under the sponsorship of Rapid Fund Envelope (RFE) in recent years.
...

FLORIDA: Appellate court won't halt circumcision for 4-year-old

Sun Sentinal (Palm Beach, Florida)
December 12, 2014

Appellate court won't halt circumcision for 4-year-old Palm Beach County boy

The Palm Beach County boy celebrated his fourth birthday on Oct. 31, and six days later a state appeals court cleared the way for his long-delayed circumcision.

But the child's foreskin has yet to be surgically removed as his father wishes.

The boy's mother insists it is not medically necessary and asked for the unusual case to be heard by the Florida Supreme Court, but her battle may be nearing the end: the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach Friday denied that request, meaning the procedure appears to be one step closer to taking place.

An army of special interest groups opposed to circumcision has rallied behind the mom. With websites and local demonstrations, these so-called "intactivists" have closely followed the parents' yearlong battle over the boy, Chase Ryan Nebus-Hironimus.

...

Jonathan Friedman, head of an organization called Bloodstained Men, has helped organize a legal bills fundraiser for the mom, Heather Hironimus, on a website called SavingChase.org. He says although the court's ruling clears the way, he doesn't think Chase's circumcision is inevitable.

"The medical community could still stand up for the boy and refuse to do it," Friedman said Friday, after hearing the case may have reached a legal dead end.

Another activist, Rebecca Wald, of Fort Lauderdale, cringes at the thought of the boy being circumcised.

"It's unfortunate the court decided the way that it did," Wald said. "Circumcision is bad enough — but when you have a 4-year-old boy who is terrified to lose part of his penis and will remember it for the rest of his life, it's insanity."

Wald has reported the yearlong court struggle on her website, BeyondtheBris.com. She advocates a ceremony called a Brit Shalom, an alternative to the traditional Jewish custom. Neither the boy's mother nor father, Dennis Nebus, are Jewish, but Wald said she felt compelled to get involved because "what's happening here is so egregious."

Attorneys for the mom and for the dad have declined to comment about the case. The dad has said he believes circumcision is "just the normal thing to do."

...

In an email Tuesday, the father's attorneys told the Sun Sentinel it is "a private family matter." They have previously blasted the mother in court for "parading the child's face and name all over the Internet," granting media interviews, and working with a Facebook page called Chase's Guardians.

...

Earlier story

WASHINGTON DC: FDA appproves Gardasil-9

Another nail in the coffin of surgery as prophylaxis

US Food and Drug Administration
December 10, 2014

FDA approves Gardasil 9 for prevention of certain cancers caused by five additional types of HPV

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Gardasil 9 (Human Papillomavirus 9-valent Vaccine, Recombinant) for the prevention of certain diseases caused by nine types of Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Covering nine HPV types, five more HPV types than Gardasil (previously approved by the FDA), Gardasil 9 has the potential to prevent approximately 90 percent of cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancers.

Gardasil 9 is a vaccine approved for use in females ages 9 through 26 and males ages 9 through 15. It is approved for the prevention of cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancers caused by HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58, and for the prevention of genital warts caused by HPV types 6 or 11. Gardasil 9 adds protection against five additional HPV types—31, 33, 45, 52 and 58— which cause approximately 20 percent of cervical cancers and are not covered by previously FDA-approved HPV vaccines.
...

The safety of Gardasil 9 was evaluated in approximately 13,000 males and females. The most commonly reported adverse reactions were injection site pain, swelling, redness, and headaches.

ZAMBIA: Woman attempts to cut son with razor blade

the Times (Zimbabwe)
Decenber 10, 2014

Woman attemps to cut son's genitals with a razor blade

by Isaac Mukando
...
... a two-month-old baby boy has been admitted to Kitwe Central Hospital (KCH) after suffering from excessive bleeding and bruises following a backyard circumcision surgery by its mother.

Both the baby’s grandmother Agness Chalwe and KCH public relations officer Gray Chishimba confirmed the incident which happened in Chambishi Township on Wednesday last week.

Ms Chalwe, who was found at the baby’s bed side in Kafue ward, narrated that her grandson Francis Mubanga was admitted following an attempt to circumcise him by his 29-year-old biological mother.

Her daughter used a razor blade to circumcise the baby from home but that the procedure went wrong leading to excessive bleeding.

Ms Chalwe said she went to the market to buy groceries but upon her return, she found her daughter performing the surgery on her son using a razor blade.

“I found my daughter circumcising her son but she was just slicing the baby’s private parts without removing the foreskin and ended up causing excessive bleeding on the baby,” she said.

Ms Chalwe, however, said her daughter was not mentally stable and suspects that she could not have been well when she was conducting the circumcision process.

She rushed the baby to the hospital where he has been admitted since last week while its mother was detained by the police but later released.

The baby’s mother is also currently admitted at Chambishi clinic.

Mr Chishimba described the baby’s condition as stable and that he was responding well to treatment as the bleeding had been controlled.

SOUTH AFRICA: Three arrested; youths in critical condition

South African Government
December 9, 2014

MEC Fikile Xasa on arrest of unlawful circumcision suspects

Three suspects arrested for unlawful circumcision
Cogta - MEC Fikile Xasa yesterday descended to the Mbizana Local Municipal area as part of monitoring the December traditional initiation season.

During his monitoring visit to traditional initiation schools, MEC Xasa pounced on two separate initiation schools and recued a total of 39 initiates in the Elurholweni village. Three suspects were arrested for kidnapping and unlawful circumcision. They are being held at the Mbizana Police Station.

“These were illegal schools that put the lives of our initiates at risk. We had no option rather to close them down and refer the initiates to the rescue centre in Port St Johns for further medical observation. As a caring government we want to save lives and put an end to the death of initiates,” said MEC Xasa.

None of the initiates had the required official documentation including letters from the local traditional leaders, no premedical examination and no parental consent to undergo the traditional initiation ritual. Their amabhoma were destroyed to prevent them being used as other illegal initiation schools.

The MEC was accompanied by members of the Traditional Initiation Forum (TIF), members of the SAPS, traditional leaders and government officials.

Some of the rescued initiates were in critical conditions hence given immediate medical attention by officials from the department of Health.

MEC Xasa encourages the community of Mbizana and other hot spot areas to work together through the establishment of TIF to end the deaths of initiates.

KENYA: 12 men forcibly circumcised

iGroove Radio
December 8, 2014

Brutal as men were forced to undergo circumcisions in western Kenya [sic]

A dozen men were seized and stripped naked before they were forced to undergo circumcisions in western Kenya as part of a ‘ceremony’, it has been reported.

The 12 men, from the Luo, Turkana, Iteso and Luhyia communities, were reportedly subjected to the procedure after their wives revealed they had not had it done previously.

A number of women in the town of Moi’s Bridge, in western Kenya, where the incident took place, said they were pleased the men went through the procedure because it made them cleaner and perform better in bed.

According to Kenyan radio station West FM, the men who underwent the procedure had either previously avoided having it done or had come from a Luhyia sub-tribe which did not carry it out.
A crowd reportedly sung circumcision songs as they gathered the men up before taking them to a nearby medical centre where the operations were carried out.

...

About 50 men have now reportedly asked police for help to protect them from the forced procedure.
...

TARRYTOWN, NY: CDC "out of touch with the rest of the developed world"

Intact America
December 2, 2014

CDC "out of touch with the rest of the developed world"

TARRYTOWN, NY—Intact America, an organization that opposes the forced genital cutting of babies and children, sharply criticizes today’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) proposed guidelines for circumcision.

The CDC is calling for doctors to tell the parents of male infants, children and adolescents that circumcision has been found to reduce the transmission to men of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The guidelines were released on December 2, 2014, opening a public comment period that will end on January 16, 2015.

“Beyond stating and restating its support for medically unnecessary circumcision, the Centers for Disease Control fails to provide any solid evidence to bolster the case for circumcision as a valid measure for disease prevention,” said Georganne Chapin, an attorney and executive director of Intact America. “The studies cited by the CDC purporting to show that circumcision reduces transmission of STIs were conducted in poor rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa over eight years ago. These studies have never been replicated elsewhere—let alone in the United States—and have no relevance to children or men in the developed world.”

“There have been no systematic studies conducted anywhere about the short-or long-term adverse consequences resulting from circumcision," says director Chapin. "Through thousands of personal stories from boys, men and their parents we know that circumcision causes myriad complications, some requiring surgical correction. Adult consequences include poor body image, painful sex, psychological problems, and erectile dysfunction. The CDC's continued persistence in recommending what they know to be an unnecessary surgery is questionable. It is happening in the face of increased public awareness about circumcision’s harms, declining U.S. circumcision rates, and the growing reluctance of states and insurers to pay for this medically unnecessary surgery.”

Intact America notes that the CDC’s proposed guidelines make no mention of the spontaneous and growing protests around the U.S. and Canada by men who are speaking out angrily about having been forced as children to undergo circumcision.

“As a public health organization, the CDC should be calling for a study of the true risks and complications from circumcision that occur over the lifetime of boys and men,” says Chapin, “before it promotes its evidence-free claim that the benefits of newborn circumcision outweigh its harms.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement in 2012 promoting the benefits of infant circumcision and calling for insurers and state Medicaid programs to pay for the surgery, performed in the U.S. often without anesthesia. This report is at sharp odds with the ethical and medical stance taken by physicians here and in Europe concerning the removal of healthy sexual tissue from children who cannot consent.

In early 2013 in the journal Pediatrics, a large group of physicians, medical organizations, and ethicists from European, Scandinavian, and Commonwealth countries issued a strongly-worded statement , calling American medicine’s support for infant circumcision “culturally biased,” and “different from [the conclusions] reached by physicians in other parts of the Western world, including Europe, Canada and Australia."

In October 2014, Britain’s National Health Service affirmed its previous position stating that, "…most healthcare professionals now agree that the risks associated with routine circumcision, such as infection and excessive bleeding, outweigh any potential benefits."

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.

KENYA: Chief shot with arrow after female-cutting arrest

Genital cutting makes people do strange things


The Star (Kenya)
November 28, 2014

Kenya: Chief in Bomet Struck By Arrow Over FGM Arrests

A man in Bomet county allegedly shot a chief in the shoulder with an arrow on Wednesday morning for leading detectives to his village to arrest a circumciser and his two victims.

Lelaitich location chief, Robinson Rotich, was reportedly struck by the arrow amid a confrontation by rowdy youths after the team of police officers he led to a home in Kabolwo village arrested the initiates. The circumciser escaped.

County police commander Leah Kithei told the press in her office on Thursday that assistant chief Elijah Mutai informed his boss of the circumcision following a tip off from members of the public. The victims, two married women, were reportedly forced to face the cut.

Kithei said the women were escorted to the Legume police post after their arrest but that the chief and his assistant alighted on the way and were afterwards accosted by the youths.

The youths fled after one of them injured the chief who was rushed to the Tenwek mission hospital in Bomet Central division, she said. The arrow in his shoulder was removed and he was treated and discharged.

The women were taken to Longisa County Referral Hospital and will be charged for failing to report a crime after they recover, Kithei also said. [Blaming the victims....]

She reiterated that the ban on FGM is still in effect and warned husbands and parents forcing their wives and daughters to get circumcised that it won't be long before they are arrested and punished.

She appealed to residents to volunteer information that could lead to the arrest of the run-away circumciser, by the police who have launched a search, assuring them that it will be confidential.

Bomet county women's rep Cecilia Ngetich last week told KNA that over 113 girls among them married women had secretly been circumcised.

TUNISA: Cutting leaves boy blind, paralysed (from the French)

Kapitalis
28 novembre, 2014

Un enfant, admis pour une circoncision, quitte la clinique aveugle et paralysé

Mohamed Amine (2 ans), opéré dans une clinique aux Berges du Lac à Tunis pour une circoncision, perd la vue et l'usage de ses jambes.
Le drame remonte à juillet dernier, au 27e jour du mois de Ramadan. Après une bataille judiciaire avec les responsables de la clinique, Islam et Sami Ghandouri, parents de la victime, ont décidé de médiatiser l’affaire et de la porter devant la justice. Ils crient à l’erreur médicale, justifiant cette affirmation par une absence totale d’analyse préopératoire: «L’équipe médicale n’a effectué aucune analyse avant d'opérer. Et c’est probablement l'anesthésie qui est la cause du drame», a affirmé Sami Ghandouri.
Selon le père de l’enfant, l’opération a duré 3 heures – trop long pour une simple circoncision –, avant qu’un médecin ne le convoque pour l’informer que Mohamed Amine a été admis d'urgence en soins intensifs. «Il semble que votre enfant ait une maladie cardiaque, il a 2% de chance de survivre», a lancé le praticien aux parents.
Le père poursuit son récit: «Mon fils est resté 5 jours dans le coma et, à son réveil, il était incapable de parler ou bouger. Il a été victime d'une erreur médicale, car si les médecins avaient effectué les examens nécessaires, ils auraient pu éviter le drame».
Islam et Sami ont du vendre leurs biens (meubles et bijoux) pour payer 7.000 dinars, une partie des frais de l’hospitalisation. Après 2 mois d’acharnement médical, la clinique a décidé que l’enfant pouvait quitter l’établissement et demandé aux parents de régler 30.000 dinars.
«La facture totale s’élève à 50.000, mais les médecins vous font cadeau de leurs honoraires. Vous nous devez donc 30.000 dinars», leur a indiqué, sans ciller, le responsable financier de la clinique, qui refuse de reconnaitre sa responsabilité dans l’état de l’enfant.
Les parents dénoncent, également, le manque d’hygiène dans l’établissement sanitaire. Ils ont en effet remarqué que, durant l’hospitalisation de Mohamed Amine, des ouvriers peignaient les murs à l’intérieur même de la chambre de la réanimation.
«La peinture dégoulinait de partout, l’odeur était insupportable et notre enfant était alité et sous machine. Le pire c’est qu’un médecin, surpris par notre remarque, a répliqué que la peinture est un antiseptique… Il nous prenait pour des imbéciles. Au manque de professionnalisme s’ajoute l’inconscience. N’ont-ils pas fait le serment d’Hippocrate? Sont-ils là pour amasser de l’argent ou pour soigner des gens», s’est interrogé le père.
M. et Mme Ghandouri sont à bout et appellent à l’aide : «Amine est alité et survit grâce aux médicaments. Il a des crises de douleurs intenses et ne dort plus. S’il faut que nous passions sur un plateau télévisé, nous le ferons, mais de grâce, trouvons une solution pour soigner mon enfant», implore le père.
Machine translation, edited
November 28, 2014

A child admitted for a circumcision left the clinic blind and paralyzed

Mohamed Amine, aged 2, circumcised in a clinic in the Berges du Lac in Tunis, lost his sight and the use of his legs.
The drama began last July, on the 27th day of the month of Ramadan. After a court battle with the leaders of the clinic, Islam and Sami Gaylord, the victim's parents, decided to publicize the case and bring it to justice. They point to medical error, justifying this statement by a total absence of preoperative analysis: "The medical team did no analysis before operating. And it is probably the anaesthesia which is the cause of the drama," said Sami Gaylord.
According to the child's father, the operation lasted 3 hours - too long for a simple circumcision - before a physician would meet him to tell him that Mohamed Amine had been urgently admitted to intensive care. "It seems that your child has heart disease; he has a 2% chance of surviving," the practitioner abruptly told the parents.
The father continues his story: "My son stayed for 5 days in a coma and when he awoke, he was unable to speak or move. He was victim of a medical error, because if doctors had made the necessary examination, they could have avoided the tragedy."
Islam and Sami had to sell their property (furniture and jewelry) to pay 7,000 dinars, a portion of the costs of hospitalization. After 2 months of intensive care, the clinic has decided that the child could leave the facility and asked parents to settle 30,000 dinars more.
"The total bill amounts to 50,000, but doctors make you gift of their fees. "You owe us 30,000 dinars," the clinc's financial manager told them without blinking. It refuses to recognize its responsibility for the child's condition.
Parents also denounced the lack of hygiene in the health facility. They even noticed that, during the hospitalization of Mohamed Amine, workers painted the interior walls, even the resuscitation room.
"Paint dripped everywhere, the smell was unbearable, and our child was bedridden and on a machine. The worst is that a doctor, surprised by our noticing, replied that the painting is an antiseptic... He was taking us for fools. This, added to the lack of professionalism, is unconscionable. Didn't they take the Hippocratic Oath? Are they there to raise money or to treat people," asked the father.
Mr. and Mrs. Ghandouri are at the end of their tether and call for help: "Amine is bedridden and survives thanks to the drugs. He has attacks of intense pain and sleeps more. If we must expose our suffering on TV, we will, but for pity's sake, find a solution to cure my child," begs the father.

SWEDEN: Taxpayers to pay for non-medical circumcision

So the Swedish taxpayer must pay? This will not last.

JTA
November 26, 2014

Swedish lawmakers nix bill requiring parents to pay for circumcision

(JTA) — Swedish lawmakers voted down a bill that would require parents to pay for non-medical circumcision of boys.

The right-wing Sweden Democrats party brought the bill to a vote Tuesday at the regional council of Blekinge County in the country’s south, Sveriges Radio reported. The party claimed that the practice should not be covered by the healthcare system because it is barbaric and compared it to female genital mutilation, according to Swedish media.

But the argument encountered passionate objections during the debate that preceded the voting, including by Anna Ekstrom of the Liberal People’s Party. She rejected the comparison and argued that circumcision was akin to Christian baptism, the Sydostran local newspaper reported.

Dismissing claims that circumcision dulled sexual pleasure, Inga-Lill Siggelsten Blum of Sweden’s Christian Democrats said, “I cannot imagine that there would be billions of men getting circumcised if it did.” [They are not, of course. The vast majority were cut before they could resist.]

The debate is part of a wider discussion across northern Europe on the Jewish and Muslim practice. Interest in the topic renewed in 2012, with left-leaning liberals and secularists calling for a ban for humanitarian reasons, and nationalist anti-immigration parties supporting a prohibition because they feel the custom is foreign and barbaric.

Currently, non-medical circumcision of boys is legal in all of Scandinavia, despite calls to ban it.

EASTERN CAPE: Pay cuts if more circumcision deaths?

Pay snip threat over circumcision deaths

by Lulamile Feni
The Eastern Cape government is considering docking the salaries of traditional leaders if initiates continue to die from botched circumcisions.

Speaking at the official start of the summer circumcision season at Nyandeni Great Place, near Libode, cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa said: "I am researching how much power I have [in terms of] enforcing and implementing the idea [of docking salaries]."

Forty-three initiates died during the summer circumcision season in Eastern Cape last year, up from 25 in 2012. Since 2006, 426000 boys have undergone the traditional rite.

Of these, 5586 were hospitalised, 532 died and 233 were so mutilated that penile amputations were necessary. To date, 257 traditional circumcision practitioners have been arrested.

More than 40000 boys are expected to be ritually circumcised during the next few weeks.

Said Xasa: "The government cannot fold its hands while future leaders and innocent souls are dying.
"Although we do not want to impose ourselves as the government, we cannot wait for an invitation to intervene."

Prince Mlamli Ndamase, spokesman for Western Mpondoland's King Ndamase Ndamase, said the MEC faced litigation if he went ahead with his proposal.

Said Ndamase: "No labour law would allow him to do that. There is [no law] saying that he must attend to initiates and be responsible if they die."

King Ndamase said all traditional leaders under his jurisdiction would have to account for initiate deaths.

"Law enforcement agencies must arrest, prosecute and convict those turning the custom into criminality.

"It's a disgrace to us Ama-Mpondo that we are notorious for the high death rates of initiates."

The provincial chairman of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA, Chief Nkosinathi Jezile, said the MEC should focus on prosecuting those who carry out illegal circumcisions.

The CEO of Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, East London, Mthandeki Xamlashe, speaking on behalf of health MEC Phumza Dyantyi, said the health department had spent R20-million on monitoring initiations.

Community Development Foundation for SA director Nkululeko Nxesi said the foundation would increase the number of initiate rescue centres it operated from two to five.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL: Demo for Chase

WPTV
November 21, 2014

Legal battle over child's circumcision prompts protest

[video]
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Protesters were near CityPlace at the intersection of Okeechobee Boulevard and Sapodilla Avenue this weekend, making their voices heard over a Florida legal battle.

A father wants to have his 4-year-old named "Chase" circumcised and the boy's mother is against it.
On Nov. 6, a court sided with the father for Chase to undergo the surgery.

“Any surgery on a child is extremely traumatic, and it doesn't make any sense to do on a healthy kid,” said protester Jonathan Friedman.

Earlier story

KENYA: Man, 45, forcibly circumcised

Madness indeed


Kenya Daly Post
November 24, 2014

This madness of forceful circumcision is back….

45 year old undergoes the cut by force in Bungoma
A 45 year old man from Sirisia, Bungoma County, was ambushed by residents of Mayekwe village yesterday and circumcised by force.

Residents said that Wilson Musa escaped the cut some years back and went to start a new life at Kapcherop village where he married a wife and had come back to his home hoping that they had forgotten.

A resident who requested not to be identified said that the father of five pretended to have been circumcised but unfortunately had a quarrel with his wife, Janet Nanjala, who in the process of hurling insults revealed his secret.

Idle locals quickly called a traditional doctor and forcefully led Musa to the river where he was circumcised.

Musa thanked neighbors saying that for a long time, he had feared the knife adding that he is glad because he is now a real man. [Stockholm syndrome]

GUINEA-BISSAU: Six on trial for cutting seven girls

AlArbia
November 22, 2014

G.Bissau launches first female genital mutilation prosecutions

Guinea-Bissau will try six people for female circumcision, a judicial source told AFP Friday, in the west African nation's first prosecutions since the practice was outlawed three years ago.

The defendants, all of whom have appeared at preliminary court hearings since Thursday, are said to believe the practice is in keeping with their Islamic faith.

The source said the defendants, two people who carried out the circumcisions and four parents, were accused of mutilating seven young girls.
...

According to a health ministry report released in 2012, at least 320,000 women and young girls have undergone FGM in the nation of 1.7 million.
...

The Bissau-Guinean parliament passed a law in June 2011 banning FGM and making it a crime punishable by up to five years imprisonment... and a fine of 50,000 CFA francs ($95, 76 euros).
Aid agency Plan International said earlier this year 50 percent of girls continue to be victims.

ZIMBABWE: Father circumcises son, 5, with nail-clippers

New Zimbabwe
November 21, 2014

Cruel dad circumcises son aged 5 with nail clippers

A MUTASA man appeared before a Mutare magistrate this week charged with trying to circumcise his five-year-old son with a set of nail clippers.

Peter Nyashenga, 35, of Tengwe Village under Chief Muparutsa, pleaded guilty to contravening sections of the Children's Act when he appeared before magistrate Anne Ndiraya.

He was remanded in custody to Tuesday next week for sentencing.

The court heard that the abuse occurred on November 11 while the child was in the custody of Nyashenga after he recently divorced his wife.

Prosecutor Brian Goto said on the day in question, Nyashenga called his son into their house and locked the door.

He then instructed the boy to undress and fished nail clippers from his pocket which he used to clip the foreskin of his son's penis.

The case was reported to police by Nyashenga's brother after noticed that the boy was in pain and the minor spilled the beans after being questioned.

The boy was taken to hospital and a medical report was produced in court as an exhibit.

The court also heard that Nyashenga savagely assaulted the boy the day before the attempted circumcision, resulting in his neighbours complaining about his ill-treatment of the child.

Asked why he committed such an offence, Nyashenga said his intention was not to harm the minor.
"Your Worship my intention was not to harm but to circumcise him," he said.