Bill Gates writes about a low-tech, low-cost initiative to reduce the transmission of HIV in South Africa:
After that, I travelled 590 kilometers northwest of Durban to Bophelo Pele, a male circumcision center near Johannesburg that has had incredible success demonstrating how this simple procedure can reduce - by more than 60 percent - the transmission of AIDS from women to men. I met with Professor Bertran Auvert, a French scientist, whose research also proves to skeptics that teenage and adult men are willing to be circumcised. Since the project began, more than 14,000 men have been circumcised, in a procedure that takes a doctor just 7 minutes and costs less than $40. It’s a remarkable example of how modest and wise investments can save lives and significantly reduce the financial impact of AIDS, especially in countries where the infection rate is so high.
