Nonsurgical Circumcision Device for Adults to Be Tested in Africa

"PrePex, a bloodless circumcision device for adults, will be tested in at least nine African countries in the next year, according to the backers of the tests," the New York Times reports. PEPFAR "will pay for PrePex circumcisions for about 2,500 men in Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, said Dr. Jason B. Reed, a technical adviser to the plan," the newspaper writes. "The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will pay for similar studies in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe," it adds.

According to the New York Times, the device "was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in January, and World Health Organization approval is expected soon." The newspaper notes, "No surgeon is needed for the procedure; a two-nurse team slides a grooved ring inside the foreskin and guides a rubber band to compress the foreskin in the groove," and adds, "After a week, the dead foreskin falls off like the stump of a baby's umbilical cord or can be painlessly clipped off, said Tzameret Fuerst, chief executive of PrePex" (McNeil, 8/13).

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