The National Coalition For Men (NCFM) published a letter to the Gates Foundation dated 14 July that argues against circumcision as an HIV-prevention measure in sub-Saharan Africa. The letter was written by Peter Adler and Steven Svoboda and submitted by the NCFM's president, Harry Crouch. Stephen Moreton has annotated the NCFM letter, pointing out its errors. This is a slightly edited version of the annotations he has sent to the Gates Foundation.

On 3 September Business Day published a poor article, filled with errors, on circumcision by Neels Blom. Here is a response to Blom's article by Dirk Taljaard of the Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention Studies (CHAPS) and Bophelo Pele Circumcision Study.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has lodged a complaint with the Public Protector against the Kwazulu-Natal MEC for Health and the Kwazulu-Natal Department of Health for its continued use of the dangerous circumcision device, the Tara KLamp.

The evidence that voluntary medical male circumcision reduces the risk of a heterosexual man contracting HIV in high prevalence areas is beyond reasonable doubt.

Today the Mercury published a story written by Anso Thom of Health-e exposing serious adverse events due to the Tara KLamp circumcision device. The photographs, which prove the seriousness of these adverse events, are published in this Quackdown article. The Mercury article also describes a draft research report that was commissioned by the Kwazulu-Natal government. The report describes possibly unethical behaviour.

An expensive gift has cast new shadows over the Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Health's controversial decision to purchase and use an unsafe circumcision device called the Tara KLamp. In addition, a promised assessment of the clamp has not materialised, the clamp is still being used, and more adverse events are being reported.

What are the benefits, risks and ethics of circumcision? These are important questions to answer for South Africa, where the government is implementing a large circumcision programme to reduce new HIV infections.