Under the previous policy, mohels who performed the controversial practice of oral suction would be banned only if medical testing showed the custom likely resulted in an infection.
Metzitzah b’peh, a controversial practice in which blood is sucked directly from a circumcision wound, is believed responsible for 24 cases of herpes reported since 2000, according to the city health officials.
A Belgian-funded study of the prevalence of HIV-2 in Africa revealed that this strain, too, is far more common in cities and communities where male circumcision is not usually performed.