Virgin Group founder jumps on circumcision bandwagon

Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2011-09-19 00:43

Article here. A web search has turned up richard.branson-at-virgin.net as his email address, but it is likely to be read by a member of his staff rather than him. Still, it'll at least get read by someone there. Excerpt:

'There's a way that few people know about that can save millions of lives at next to no cost. That is voluntary medical male circumcision. The bottom line is that it reduces transmission of HIV by 60% in men, the greatest benefits accruing in developing nations that are hardest hit by the epidemic. The World Health Organisation (WHO), UNAIDS and PEPFAR are leading the world in scaling-up circumcision efforts as part of the fight against AIDS.

The WHO estimates that voluntary medical male circumcision could prevent up to 5.7 million new infections and 3 million deaths by 2017, and PEPFAR reports that a programme to increase circumcision to 80% coverage in Eastern and Southern Africa over the next 5 years could prevent 20% - an incredible 4 million – new infections in the region.

The effect of male-to-female HIV transmission is less clear and more research is needed. However, studies do show that female partners of circumcised men have a reduced risk of acquiring the virus, and there is consensus that women will benefit from the scale-up of circumcision efforts in the long term because of the lower risk of exposure to HIV as well as sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer.'

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Comments

I can't believe Mr. Branson is falling for this.

I am going to write him at the email provided, but I also notice he is at Twitter and he claims to write all his own tweets.

For those that have never used twitter, it is very easy . Just think up a user name and password. takes a few seconds and then you can "follow" people and send them tweets that will be seen by all his "followers". I think we should all tweet Mr. Branson.

http://twitter.com/#!/richardbranson

My tweet will be "RICHARD don't be a DICK" only kidding, I will try and come up with something short and to the point

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Submitted by Kris on Mon, 2011-09-19 04:25

I wonder if Branson would promote hacking bits off womens and girls bodies if it was shown to be beneficial to mens' health.

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Submitted by gwallan on Mon, 2011-09-19 10:14

Actually Kris a tweet with an opening like that might work. It would certainly catch his attention.

Branson strikes me as the type of man who might respond to that sort of humour. He named his company "Virgin" after all...

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Submitted by sirprince on Mon, 2011-09-19 15:25