Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Practice 10-Minute Consultation

Tight foreskin

BMJ 2016; 355 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i4639 (Published 05 October 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;355:i4639

Rapid Response:

Answering Dr. JK Anand's response, asked on 26/12/2016

In my previous two responses what I had mentioned about foreskin and HIV, was from WHO and CDC publications respectively1,2.

I've asked the scientists in ICMR who have worked on male circumcision in prevention of HIV. They've done qualitative studies and found that acceptability for male circumcision was very low in Indian Population 3,4,5.

References:

1. http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/malecircumcision/en/ as accessed on 27/10/2016.

2. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/prevention_research_malecircumcision.pdf

3. Sinha A, Chandhiok N, Sahay S, Deb S, Bharat S, Gupta A, Bhatt S, Kanthe V,
Kumar B, Joglekar N, Paranjape R, Mehendale S. Male circumcision for HIV
prevention in India: emerging viewpoints and practices of health care providers.
AIDS Care. 2015;27(9):1196-8. doi: 10.1080/09540121.2015.1039957. PubMed PMID:
26001127.

4. Sahay S, Nagarajan K, Mehendale S, Deb S, Gupta A, Bharat S, Bhatt S, Kumar
AB, Kanthe V, Sinha A, Chandhiok N. Community and healthcare providers'
perspectives on male circumcision: a multi-centric qualitative study in India.
PLoS One. 2014 Mar 10;9(3):e91213. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091213. PubMed
PMID: 24614575; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3948789.

5. Chandhiok N, Gangakhedkar RR. The new evidence on male circumcision: an Indian
perspective. Reprod Health Matters. 2007 May;15(29):53-6. PubMed PMID: 17512375.

FOOTNOTE: (The summary of two references from Pubpdf is provided below:)

MALE CIRCUMCISION FOR HIV PREVENTION IN INDIA: EMERGING VIEWPOINTS AND PRACTICES OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS.
AIDS Care 2015 22;27(9):1196-8. Epub 2015 Dec 22.
Anju Sinha, Nomita Chandhiok, Seema Sahay, Sibnath Deb, Shalini Bharat, Abhilasha Gupta, Sripad Bhatt, Vidisha Kanthe, Bijesh Kumar, Neelam Joglekar, Ramesh Paranjape, Sanjay Mehendale
A compelling case for promoting male circumcision (MC) as an intervention for reducing the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection was made by dissemination of the results of three studies in Africa. The WHO/UNAIDS recommendation for MC for countries like India, where the epidemic in concentrated in high-risk groups, advocates MC for specific population groups such as men at higher risk for HIV acquisition. A multicentre qualitative study was conducted in four geographically distinct districts (Belgaum, Kolkata, Meerut and Mumbai) in India during June 2009 to June 2011.

COMMUNITY AND HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS' PERSPECTIVES ON MALE CIRCUMCISION: A MULTI-CENTRIC QUALITATIVE STUDY IN INDIA.
PLoS One 2014 10;9(3):e91213. Epub 2014 Dec 10.
Seema Sahay, Karikalan Nagarajan, Sanjay Mehendale, Sibnath Deb, Abhilasha Gupta, Shalini Bharat, Shripad Bhatt, Athokpam Bijesh Kumar, Vidisha Kanthe, Anju Sinha, Nomita Chandhiok
Although male circumcision (MC) is recommended as an HIV prevention option, the religious, cultural and biomedical dimensions of its feasibility, acceptability and practice in India have not been explored till date. This study explores beliefs, experiences and understanding of the community and healthcare providers (HCPs) about adult MC as an HIV prevention option in India.
This qualitative study covered 134 in-depth interviews from Belgaum, Kolkata, Meerut and Mumbai cities of India.

Competing interests: No competing interests

31 October 2016
Neeru Gupta
Scientist F
Indian Council of Medical Research
Ansari Nagar, New Delhi-110029.