Circumcision should be seen 'in the same light as childhood vaccination': study

Article here. Excerpt:

'Fewer infants in the United States are being circumcised than in previous decades, yet the benefits of the procedure far outweighs the risks, an Australian-American study has concluded.

The findings, reported Wednesday in the prestigious Mayo Clinic Proceedings, found that while the number of circumcised American men aged 14-59 rose slightly between 2005 and 2010 -- from 79 to 80.5 per cent -- the current rate at which infants are being circumcised has fallen by six per cent over the last four decades.
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And the decrease has the study’s authors arguing that nowadays people should look at infant circumcision “in the same light as childhood vaccination” -- in large part due to the health benefits they say the procedure offers.

More specifically, the study found that the benefits of circumcision outweighed risks by at least 100 to 1. The authors say that half of uncircumcised males will contract an adverse medical condition in their lifetime caused by their foreskin. Uncircumcised men also have a greater chance at contracting genital ulcer disease, penile cancer and a number of STDs, the study shows.

The U.S.-based Center for Disease Control says that carcinogenic subtypes of human papillomavirus (HPV) -- which are believed to cause cervical cancers, 90 per cent of anal cancers, and 40 per cent of cancers of the penis, vulva, and vagina -- have also been associated with uncircumcised men.
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The Canadian Paediatric Society, which outlined its position in 1996, says that “the overall evidence of the benefits and harms of circumcision is so evenly balanced that (the CPS) does not support recommending circumcision as a routine procedure for newborns.”

And the CPS policy appears to reflect circumcision rates in Canada. A February 2013 study in the medical journal Canadian Family Physician put the circumcision rate in Canada at 32 per cent.'