Susan S.J. Goldstein

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Susan S.J. Goldstein is member of the 2018 Guideline Development Group (GDG) of the WHO. The GDG's task is to develop updated recommendations on safe male circumcision for HIV prevention and related service delivery for adolescent boys and men in generalized HIV epidemics.[1]

Biography

The WHO published the following biography of Susan S.J. Goldstein:

Goldstein, Susan SJ

  • Soul City Institute; University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health (honorary Senior Lecturer)
  • MBBch MMed (Community Health)
  • Johannesburg, South Africa

Dr Goldstein is a medically qualified public health specialist with 20 years working in the field of health promotion and communication in South Africa. She has worked in the field of communication around HIV/AIDS since 1994, focusing on many aspects including sexual prevention, medical male circumcision, prevention of mother to child transmission and crucially in 2004 in the communication around the role out of anti-retroviral treatment. She has experience in many forms of communication and have a special interest in research, monitoring and evaluation, having written many articles about evaluating health communication and understanding what works. She was part of the team who developed the M.P.H.[a 1] in Social and Behaviour Change Communication at Wits University and continues to teach on this course.

Shei s currently a member of the independent Monitoring Board for the Global Eradication of Polio and served on the Afro Task Team for Immunization (TFI) for a number of years focusing on the role that communication plays in these critical areas. She was the chair of the South African National AIDS Council’s Communication Technical Task Team for 3 years until 2012. She was the chair of the 8th South African AIDS Conference held in Durban June 2017.[2]

Dr. Goldstein is a communications specialist who has presented information on medical male circumcision. One must assume that she believes what she is preaching.

Population-based studies

September 2021 saw the publication of two huge population studies on the relationship of circumcision and HIV infection:

  1. Mayan et al. (2021) carried out a massive empirical study of the male population of the province of Ontario, Canada (569,950 males), of whom 203,588 (35.7%) were circumcised between 1991 and 2017. The study concluded that circumcision status is not related to risk of HIV infection.[3]
  2. Morten Frisch & Jacob Simonsen (2021) carried out a large scale empirical population study in Denmark of 855,654 males regarding the alleged value of male circumcision in preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in men. They found that circumcised men have a higher rate of STI and HIV infection overall than intact men.[4]

No association between lack of circumcision and risk of HIV infection was found by either study. There now is credible evidence that the massive, expensive African circumcision programs have not been effective in preventing HIV infection.

See also

Bias

Abbreviations

References

  1. REFweb (May 2018). WHO to develop new guidelines on male circumcision. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  2. REFdocument Biographies of Guideline Development Group (GDG) members for WHO guidance PDF, WHO. (September 2018). Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  3. REFjournal Mayan M, Hamilton RJ, Juurlink DN, Austin PC, Jarvi KA. Circumcision and Risk of HIV Among Males From Ontario, Canada. J Urol. 23 September 2021; PMID. DOI. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
    Quote: We found that circumcision was not independently associated with the risk of acquiring HIV among men from Ontario, Canada.
  4. REFjournal Frisch M, Simonsen J. Non-therapeutic male circumcision in infancy or childhood and risk of human immunodeficiency virus and other sexually transmitted infections: national cohort study in Denmark. Eur J Epidemiol. 26 September 2021; 37: 251–9. PMID. DOI. Retrieved 16 January 2022.