THE distributors of the Tara KLamp circumcision device have rejected a call for it to be put on hold until safety concerns had been addressed.
THE distributors of the Tara KLamp circumcision device have rejected a call for it to be put on hold until safety concerns had been addressed.
The call was made yesterday by the Treatment Action Campaign and the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.
Tony Lawrence, spokesperson for distributors Carpe Diem Enterprises, said, however, that the two organisations' joint statement contained numerous allegations about the clamp which were "totally inaccurate, unjustified and unfounded".
He said these would require some time to respond to in detail, with input from the manufacturers.
TAC and the doctors said the device was being aggressively marketed in Southern African countries, including South Africa.
They said they encouraged voluntary male circumcision as a way of reducing the risk of heterosexual men contracting HIV.
However, a controlled trial of the Tara KLamp at Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, had found a high rate of "adverse events".
Men circumcised using the clamp had, in the trial, also reported worse pain than men circumcised using the forceps-guided method of medical circumcision. - Sapa
Bid to hold over circumcision device rebuffed
THE distributors of the Tara KLamp circumcision device have rejected a call for it to be put on hold until safety concerns had been addressed.
THE distributors of the Tara KLamp circumcision device have rejected a call for it to be put on hold until safety concerns had been addressed.
The call was made yesterday by the Treatment Action Campaign and the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.
Tony Lawrence, spokesperson for distributors Carpe Diem Enterprises, said, however, that the two organisations' joint statement contained numerous allegations about the clamp which were "totally inaccurate, unjustified and unfounded".
He said these would require some time to respond to in detail, with input from the manufacturers.
TAC and the doctors said the device was being aggressively marketed in Southern African countries, including South Africa.
They said they encouraged voluntary male circumcision as a way of reducing the risk of heterosexual men contracting HIV.
However, a controlled trial of the Tara KLamp at Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, had found a high rate of "adverse events".
Men circumcised using the clamp had, in the trial, also reported worse pain than men circumcised using the forceps-guided method of medical circumcision. - Sapa