Hailey Ward
10/29/10
2:00pm
Blog 9
Health Officials in South Africa have decided that it would be a good idea to circumcise prisoners in South Africans prisons to help reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS. Some studies have shown that being circumcised can decrease the chance of contracting the AIDs virus. As of now there have been 148 circumcised in the prisons to start the campaign to reduce infections. HIV is very prevalent in South Africa. There are around 5.7 million people in South Africa living with the HIV virus, more than any other country. South Africa's Prisoners Human Rights Organization told the BBC it welcomed the move as long as inmates were properly informed.
I believe that this is a great effort in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS. The inmates need to be properly informed about the decision they are making and they need to feel comfortable enough to say no if they do not wish to be circumcised. The efforts to circumcise the target number of 2.5 million people by June 2014 should not make the inmates feel pressured to make a decision they are not ready for. The process of circumcision needs to be one hundred percent voluntary. Public health officials need to educate the inmates so they can make an informed educated decision about their bodies. However, more could be done than circumcising prisoners. For example teaching inmates safer sex techniques, like using condoms. This is a controversial issue because people do not want to promote having sex in prison, however giving inmates condoms could also greatly reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS.
1 comment:
South Africa is trying their best to get it under control and when measures like this are taken into effect it really states that they are wanting to do something about it. a government can't really ban sex or enforce condoms and protection but they need to do everything in their power to help decrease the numbers of inverted people.
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