In addition, the academy reckons that for every 909 circumcisions one man will be spared penile cancer.

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No records are kept of circumcisions performed outside of hospitals and there is no regulation of ritual practitioners.

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He performs ritual circumcisions on Jewish male infants in accordance with Jewish law.

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Also included is funding for 4.7 million voluntary male circumcisions in eastern and southern Africa, which research has shown reduces the risk of female-to-male transmission by more than 60%.

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Baby boys whose circumcisions likely involved the ritual between April 2006 and December 2011 had an estimated risk of contracting neonatal HSV-1 infection of 24.4 per 100, 000 cases, 3.4 times greater than other infants, according to the health department.

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