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→Origin of the circumcision/HIV hypothesis: Add text and citation.
|url=https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198610303151818
|pubmedID=3762636
|}}</ref> Fink proposed in his letter: "I suspect that men in the United States, who, as compared with those in Africa and elsewhere, have had less acquisition of [[AIDS]], have benefited from the high rate of newborn [[circumcision ]] in the United States," regardless of the fact that the United States has one of the highest circumcision rates, and one of the highest [[HIV]] rates, in the western (industrialized) world (compare with European countries, Canda, and Australia).<ref>{{REFweb
|url=http://www.who.int/hiv/facts/hiv2003/en/
|title=A global view of HIV infection
|Source="This Little Operation". ''Marked in Your Flesh.'' p.206-208
}}
Alcena and Fink lacked a hypothesis to explain why the foreskin would be an entry point for HIV infection, but this was supplied by circumcision promoter [[Gerald N. Weiss]] and two colleagues. Weiss et al. (1993) produced the plausible but incorrect hypothesis that [[Langerhans cells]] attracted HIV. A medical journal in Israel was willing to publish the paper by Weiss et al.<ref name="weiss1993">{{REFjournal
|last=Weiss
|first=Gerald N.
|init=GN
|author-link=Gerald N. Weiss
|last2=Sanders
|first2=
|init2=M
|author2-link=
|last3=Westbrook
|first3=
|init3=KC
|author3-link=
|etal=no
|title=The distribution and density of Langerhans cells in the human prepuce: site of a diminished immune response?
|journal= Isr J Med Sci
|location=
|date=1993-01
|volume=20
|issue=1
|article=
|page=
|pages=42-3
|url=
|archived=
|quote=
|pubmedID=8454447
|pubmedCID=
|DOI=
|accessdate=2022-10-28
}}</ref>.
Fink abandoned the circumcision/[[HIV]] controversy in 1991, and he died in 1994. He left behind an indelible legacy nonetheless; the circumcision/[[HIV]] hypothesis continues to be supported by researchers and scientists that are adopting his assertions and writing studies based upon them, and the campaign to establish a causal link between [[HIV]] infection and the presence of the foreskin continues to this day.