TransCity

In the 1990’s of the last century, health insurers in the Netherlands started to cover the costs of male circumcision. This was seen as a way to make their insurance package more attractive for the growing Muslim population in the country. In the past few years political debate on the tradition of male circumcision has intensified. Some politicians in the Netherlands and other European countries even pleaded for a ban of male circumcision when there is no medical necessity for the operation as well as abolishing its health insurance cover.

But this attitude might change. In recent years we have seen a rise in the popularity of male circumcision in South Africa and North America, resulting from rumours of its possible protective effect against HIV. And now these rumours are backed up by the results of a research conducted in 2005 showing the transmission of HIV from women to men during sex was reduced by 60% if the men were circumcised. In a study published last month in PLoS Medicine, the researchers combined results from a trial in South Africa with data on HIV and circumcision rates in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the study, if all men in sub-Saharan Africa were circumcised, it would prevent almost six million of new cases of HIV infection and save three million lives over the next 20 years.

In the Independent newspaper in the UK, Catherine Hankins, chief scientific adviser to UN-Aids, said : “In west and central Africa there are high circumcision rates and lower HIV rates.” Deborah Jack, chief executive of the UK-based National Aids Trust, finds the research results encouraging. Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said the research was set to change parental expectations and medical practice across the world. Instead of viewing the operation as an assault on the male sex, it was increasingly being seen as a lifesaving procedure which every parent would want for their sons.

Could these new research findings impact ethnic marketing in the health and insurance business once again?