Circumcision, called "Brit Mila" in Hebrew, is an ancient Jewish ritual mandated in the Old Testament, in which the foreskin of the penis is removed in a brief surgical procedure on the eighth day after birth.
Several medical studies conducted in recent years have concluded that circumcision soon after birth dramatically reduces the chances of contracting the AIDS virus in unprotected sexual contact during adulthood, as well as lowering the chances of contracting other diseases.
In 2008, a group of eight medical organizations, which include the Jerusalem AIDS Project, launched what has become known as the Abraham Operation, a periodic dispatching of physicians to a host of African nations stricken with high AIDS mortality rates, to instruct local medical crews on how to perform the age-old surgical procedure.
The delegation is slated to instruct South African nurses and midwifes in infant circumcision, in a bid to significantly decrease AIDS cases in coming generations.
The volunteers, both Jewish and Muslim, will focus their efforts with the Zulu tribe.
Its members were selected after the World Health Organization asked the Israeli director of the project to establish an international working group that will introduce a "Circumcision Protocol" for infants, according to Monday's report.
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