By Howard M. Riell
The controversy surrounding metzitzah b’peh is in the news again, as at least for newborns are reported to have contracted herpes in New York City over the past six months after undergoing circumcision.
The practice involves the circumciser, or mohel, cleaning the circumcision wound via oral suction.
According to WPIX 11, referencing New York City Health Department sources, the babies or hospitalized, given intravenous antiviral drugs, and are doing well.
“The spread of neonatal herpes through ritual circumcision is a public health risk,” a Health Department official reportedly commented to WPIX. “To address this risk, we will continue to work with providers and families across our city to keep our youngest New Yorkers safe.”
Adults’ saliva can carry a type of herpes that causes minor symptoms in adults, but potentially serious symptoms in newborns, JTA reported. “A herpes infection in a newborn baby can cause brain damage and death. The custom is rarely practiced outside the haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community. Other mohels use a sterile pipette for the practice.”
Metzitzah b’peh, or oral suction, has for obvious reasons become controversial. The practice has become a controversy in both secular and Jewish medical ethics. The process has the mohel place his mouth directly on the circumcision wound to draw blood away from the cut. The majority of Jewish circumcision ceremonies do not use metzitzah b’peh, but some Haredi Jews use it. It has been documented that the practice poses a serious risk of spreading herpes to the infant. Proponents maintain that there is no conclusive evidence that links herpes to metzitza, and that attempts to limit this practice infringe on religious freedom.
Due to its large Jewish population, New York City has become the center of the controversy. Five years ago, New York officials got rid of a parental consent form that had been put in place by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg. It was replaced with an educational brochure in 2015.
According to reports, a half-dozen families in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, saw their babies contract the herpes virus from 2015 to the middle of 2017 as a result of metzitzah b’peh. It is also being reported that no fewer than 11 boys were infected with herpes during their circumcisions from 2004 to 2011. It proved fatal in two cases, and led to brain damage in the others.
“Public health experts have found that metzitzah b’peh can put babies at risk of getting a harmful virus called herpes simplex virus type 1 or HSV-1,” city health officials explains. “Some of these babies became seriously ill. Some developed brain damage, and others have died. There is no proven way to eliminate the risk of HSV-1 infection from direct oral suctioning. Many adults carry HSV-1 in their bodies. They may have no symptoms or only mild symptoms, such as cold sores. Unlike adults, babies are too young to fight the virus. When a baby gets the virus, they could have brain damage, develop a lifelong disability or, in some cases, die.”
