the various statements by pediatric bodies were written before the publication of increasingly compelling evidence much of it from africa that circumcision significantly reduces the risk i e reduces it to th of acquiring hiv aids this is not to say that it eliminates the risk but a reduction that large is of great importance to everyone and especially to boys men in africa where anti retroviral medications are out of reach both financially and geographically of the huge majority why deny such an advantage by discouraging so simple and widely practiced an operation tom