Dear Editor:

Isaacs et al. provide no data on gender and circumcision status of the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) patients.¹ This is a significant lapse in view of previous reports that put newborn boys and particularly newly-circumcised boys newborn boys at substantially heightened risk of staphylococcal disease.^2-7

Although male neonatal circumcision is rare in the U.K. because the NHS does not provide this non-therapeutic operation, it remains common in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Doctors circumcised about 13 percent of Australian and Canadian newborn boys in 2003, and in the U.S. the incidence was about 55 percent.

Provision of data on gender and circumcision status would be helpful in identifying and quantifying the MRSA risk to which those medical doctors who perform circumcisions may expose newborn boys.

George Hill
Vice-President for Bioethics and Medical Science
Doctors Opposing Circumcision
Suite 42, 2442 NW Market Street
Seattle, Washington 98107-4137
USA
Web: http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org

References:

1. Isaacs D, Fraser S, Hogg G, Li HY. Staphylococcus aureus infections in Australasian neonatal nurseries. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2004;89:F331-5. [Full Text]
2. Sauer LW. Fatal staphylococcus bronchopneumonia following ritual circumcision. Am J Obstetr Gynecol 1943;46:583.
3. Thompson DJ, Gezon HM, Hatch TF, et al. Sex distribution of Staphylococcus aureus colonization and disease in newborn infants. New Engl J Med 1963:269;337-41.
4. Thompson DJ, Gezon HM, Rogers KD, et al. Excess risk of staphylococcus infection and disease in newborn males. Am J Epidemiol 1965;84(2):314-28.
5. Annunziato D, Goldblum LM. Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome. A complication of circumcision. Am J Dis Child 1978;132(12):1187-8. [Abstract]
6. Curran JP, Al-Salihi FL. Neonatal staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome: massive outbreak due to an unusual phage type. Pediatrics 1980;66(2):285-90. [Abstract]
7. Enzenauer RW, Dotson CR, Leonard T, et al. Male predominance in persistent staphylococcal colonization and infection of the newborn. Hawaii Med J 1985;44(10):389-90, 392, 394-6.