Soft response to AIDS

Since a South African study indicated that circumcision reduced the rate of HIV infection among men, several African countries hit hard by the disease have moved toward embracing the procedure in the battle against AIDS.

But in South Africa, where more people are infected with HIV than in any other African country, the results of the research have rarely been reported, much less publicly discussed. If anything, AIDS activists here say, circumcisions will soon become less common because of a law signed by President Thabo Mbeki last month.

The law, which has not yet taken effect, bans the circumcision of boys younger than 16. It was aimed at curbing circumcisions performed as a tribal rite, a practice that leads to dozens of deaths and injuries each year. The measure includes exceptions for religious reasons, meaning it will have no effect on the country’s small Jewish and Muslim communities, and on medical grounds, though they were not defined.

In Africa, most tribes historically included circumcision as part of coming-of-age rituals, but the tradition has faded as countries have become more urbanised. Researchers have noted for several years that African countries with the highest HIV rates generally have low rates of circumcision.

The South African study, conducted at the impoverished Orange Farm township south of Johannesburg, was the first to measure experimentally the effects of circumcision on the spread of HIV. Researchers recruited 3,274 young men and performed the surgery on half. After 18 months, 49 of the uncircumcised group had become infected with HIV, but only 20 who had been circumcised were infected. The researchers suggested that circumcised men were 60 percent less likely to contract HIV than uncircumcised men.

The polarised nature of the AIDS debate in South Africa dates to 2000, when Mbeki questioned whether HIV was the sole cause of the disease and whether antiretroviral treatment was safe and effective. Activists here have long argued that Mbeki’s doubts undermined the South African response to AIDS.

No more interest-free loans

JAPAN

Defying warnings from some politicians and economists, Japan’s central bank has raised a key short-term interest rate for the first time in six years, to 0.25 pc from virtually zero. The historic policy shift reflects Japan’s emergence from a long slump in which extraordinarily low rates were used to prop up a stagnant economy and banking system.

The immediate impact is likely to be small — affecting speculative investors such as hedge funds that enjoyed access to cheap loans. But rising interest rates could spur Japanese banks to change their investment practices, including cutting back on purchases of US Treasury bonds, thus influencing America’s interest rates as well.

Some analysts and leaders had argued it was too early to end the zero-interest-rate policy, voicing worries of a repeat of a mistake made in 2000 when interest rates were last raised and the economy shriveled amid declining prices and massive job losses.

But others praised the central bank’s action as a prudent step given the changes in Japan’s financial picture. In recent months, the Japanese economy has been growing at a healthy pace, unemployment has fallen and business confidence has risen. Prices have begun to tick higher, boosted by rising energy costs.

Toshihiko Fukui, the Bank of Japan’s governor, assured people that the bank had no intention of following the kind of rate-hike campaign of the US Federal Reserve, which has raised rates 17 straight times in the last two years to 5.25 pc.