Dear Bill and Melinda Gates,
It has come to my attention that your foundation is a significant stakeholder in the current plan to circumcise tens of millions of African men and boys over the next four years, and that this program is being conducted under the auspices of reducing the spread of HIV on that continent.
I am writing this letter, and posting it to my website, to investigate whether you are personally aware of the corruption and disinformation on which this plan is based, and whether you are aware that there is no scientific reason to believe that it will result in any success. I also want to inquire if you are aware that there is abundant scientific reason to believe that this plan will result in the pointless death and disfigurement of countless thousands of innocents.
Please be advised that the science supporting your work is incomplete, to put it kindly. The “Orange Farm Study,” on which your project is based, has come under well-deserved attack by respected members of the medical establishment, mainly because the clinical trials were never completed.
Dr. Daniel J Ncayiyana, editor of the South African Medical Journal said, “The extended claim that circumcision confers lifelong protection seems like a stretch, and cannot be inferred from this or the other RCTs (randomized, controlled intervention trials), all of which were terminated at 24 months or less. And because the control groups were also offered circumcision at the termination of the RCT, the opportunity to continue longer-term follow-up was forever extinguished.”
African national population surveys in eight countries found a higher rate of HIV infection among circumcised men compared to men who were not circumcised.
So the entire plan, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, is based on one study with no acceptable clinical trials and no claim to scientific validity. Yet it was ramrodded through the WHO and is being used to justify surgery on tens of millions of people. All this despite the fact it is well known the use of condoms and education can severely curtail the spread of HIV.
Are you aware of the incidence of surgical site infections (SSI’s) on the African continent? It runs by some estimates up to 40%. I urge you to consider the math on this and what it actually means. 28,000,000 unneeded circumcisions, induced with disinformation and deception, on a grossly impoverished population with little or no access to adequate, sanitary medical care.
Have you considered what impact the message that circumcision is protection from HIV will have on masses of poor, uneducated African men? Perhaps you should. Ayanda Nqeketo started a circumcision program in Swaziland, reportedly with funding from your foundation. One man was heard to say that he got the circumcision because it was “nice to have sex without condoms.”
Your entire project is ill-conceived and is a recipe for a certain human disaster. If you participate in it you will absolutely have blood on your hands.
Members of the A Voice for Men organization are now forging relationships with concerned individuals in Africa who have long been vocal about the highly suspicious nature of this enterprise. We will be reporting regularly on the death and disfigurement your plan is sure to inflict, as well as attaching the names of all individuals and organizations associated with the project.
We urge you in the strongest of terms to divest your foundation completely from the plan to manipulate and coerce African men and boys into being sexually mutilated in this horrendously misguided agenda.
Paul Elam, Publisher
A Voice for Men, LLC
