Reuters Health -
NEW YORK |
Australian researchers say that they
found that circumcision "provides considerable protection and over the
lifespan makes about a three- to four-fold difference by our prediction,
which is quite striking in public health terms," lead study author
Brian Morris, professor of molecular medical science at the Sydney
Medical School, University of Sydney, told Reuters Health.
Zbys Fedorowicz, director of the Bahrain
branch of the UK Cochrane Centre, a non-profit organization that
evaluates medical studies, said that the 22-study analysis combined
different types of studies and the researchers failed to assess their
quality.
"It doesn't mean to say
that these guys are necessarily wrong, it's just that we don't know
because the methodological approach that they used isn't thorough
enough, it's not transparent, it's not reproducible and it's not clear,"
Fedorowicz said.
Dr. Robert Van Howe, clinical professor of
pediatrics at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
and vocal critic of circumcision, also found the new study problematic.
Van
Howe said that diagnostic criteria for urinary tract infections differ
between researchers and that the cost/ benefit analysis of circumcision
as a preventive tool for infections doesn't add up.
Read the full Reuters Health report
