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The medical news media seem to have become especially attached to the idea that male circumcision may provide something new to write about in the, for news media, rather eventless battle against AIDS in Africa. The XIIIth International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, gained a lot of media attention and here too male circumcision was presented as a possible new hope for Africa. For example, The Lancet in June 2001 in an article titled “Male circumcision could help protect against HIV infection”, maintains that despite problems some conference delegates agreed on the importance of continuing research on male circumcision:
.. .Buve pointed out, however, that to substantially reduce HIV transmission, men would need to be circumcised before they reached sexual maturity. Furthermore, since there are doubts about the safety of circumcision procedures in parts of Africa, implementation of this policy would also have important practical and ethical implications. Most importantly, the delegates were concerned that safe sex practices might decrease if circumcision became perceived as providing full protection against HIV infection. Despite indecision about the appropriate population studies that need to be done, all the speakers agreed that randomised controlled trials examining the effect of male circumcision on HIV transmission are needed (Clark 2000:225).
In popular media the news is visibly highlighted. This study, however, did not attempt to cover all popular media reporting on the matter, but some examples may be worth mentioning. In the main South African newspaper The Mail & Guardian’s special issue on World Aids Day, the ‘news’ was reported in a lengthy article that was also concerned about male circumcision becoming used as a ‘natural condom’, but it ends as following: “Circumcision is only one of many complex ways of stopping transmission. South Africa, with the fastest growing and largest population of HIV patients in the world, needs them all. And fast” (Ford 2000:9).