Circumcisions for Colorado boys could again be covered by Medicaid, a year after circumcisions were eliminated to save money. A Senate committee voted 6-3 on Thursday to restore circumcisions as a covered medical procedure for Medicaid recipients. If approved, the change would cost Colorado some $230,000 a year. The procedure was dropped last year amid complaints that circumcisions aren’t medically necessary and that the money could be better spent elsewhere. Several other states stopped paying for the procedure. Supporters of the financing of circumcisions argued that the procedure has medical benefits and isn’t purely cosmetic. The bill (Senate Bill 90) now heads to the Appropriations Committee.

Source: The Denver Post and AP.

Hot on the heels of last Saturday’s story comes another about PrePex. They have just received FDA accreditation. There's a new video on the company website and a newspaper commentary in the New York Times.

PrePex has expanded out of Rwanda and is currently being clinically studied by the Government of Zimbabwe, based on the WHO framework. Rumour has it that the company is about to expand even further into another sub-Saharan country not yet named. Given that the wording of Bill Gates’ latest newsletter places PrePex and Shang as leaders in the race to establish preferred device status in the eyes of the Gates Foundation, this could be interesting. Other contenders - especially Ali'sKlamp and TaraKLamp - apparently have some catching-up to do.

Latest statistical analysis published by the highly respected researcher Ron Gray and his team puts the long-term effectiveness of male circumcision as a means of curbing the spread of HIV at 73%. More here:  AIDS. 2011 Dec 29. [Epub ahead of print]

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