Brooklyn, NY – The New York City Department of Health received a report within the last week of an infant with symptoms of neonatal herpes and the case is currently under investigation, The Jewish Week has learned. (By law, such reports must be made within 24 hours of a diagnosis).
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While the health department could not confirm where the report came from or whether it involved the circumcision ritual metzitzah b’peh, a source in the medical community told The Jewish Week that a suspected case of neonatal herpes related to metzitzah b’peh, or oral suction, has been treated at Maimonides Hospital within the past week.
Eileen Tynion, a spokeswoman for Maimonides, told The Jewish Week, “we are bound by federal law (HIPAA) and can neither confirm nor deny the presence of any patient in our hospital.”
If it is neonatal herpes how could it possibly involve Metzizah Be’Peh?
i think it would be wise for a Rabbi like Rabbi hoffman who regularly writes articles to clarify this issue for readers and the parameters of the mitzvah and the meaning behind it. we have been doing it for thousands of yrs and there are hundreds performed each day why the sudden increase
Where would be without the good people at The Jewish(?) Week looking after us. Isn’t it amazing, they come out with a store without any sources, this way they can keep the heat on
To commenter #2 :
You referred to a “sudden increase”. Who says there is one? All we know is that the anti-Jewish Week is publishing more of their poison. There is an issue that does not lend itself to the lay comments that we read here and on other blogs. There are halachic issues that are beyond the comprehension of most readers here, and the poskim need to address this together with those who have the scientific understanding of the entire issue. I’m sick of the dirt thrown at a Minhag Yisroel and halacha. I’m equally sick at the rushed conclusions made by those least knowledgeable. And, of course, the anti-Jewish Week.
Acording to the CDC the majority of STD’s are transmitted thru “same gender relationships” and a lot of those infections get past on the babies that are born after having contact with these people.
The “Jewish Week” is leading the compaign against the way milah was done the last 3500 years if they and all the haters are so concerned for the “childrens”why don’t they come out against “same gender relations” that are the leading cause of over 10 STD’S (PER CDC) not only aren’t the against it They support it!
So maybe its not the children they are concerned about its all about the over 200 year war against G-D that the elightened jews are trying to educate the “old fashined jews”
By the way I strongly support all the preventive measures to make sure the the babies don’t catch herpes I just question the JW motives enough said.
Acording to the CDC the majority of STD’s are transmitted thru “same gender relationships” and a lot of those infections get past on the babies that are born after having contact with these people.
The “Jewish Week” is leading the compaign against the way milah was done the last 3500 years if they and all the haters are so concerned for the “childrens”why don’t they come out against “same gender relations” that are the leading cause of over 10 STD’S (PER CDC) not only aren’t the against it They support it!
So maybe its not the children they are concerned about its all about the over 200 year war against G-D that the elightened jews are trying to educate the “old fashined jews”
By the way I strongly support all the preventive measures to make sure the the babies don’t catch herpes I just question the JW motives enough said.
Let’s call a spade a spade … Its a spade!!
The UnJewish Week, a rag that any shomer Torah u’mitzvos wouldn’t event think of using as toilet paper DESPITE all the dung in there already, has been on the forefront of this fight against halocha/minhag just as they have against anything torahdik since day 1.
They are looking for trouble and I will bet, when they can’t find it, like the NY Slimes, they will make it up!
Reading the DENIALS from the Yidden here, I now believe the stories of the Yidden in nazi europe who were in DENIAL when they heard that Yidden in the next town were being raped and slaughtered. DENIAL is a Jewish ILLNESS.
Since 80% of Americans carry the HERPES Simplex 1 Virus, it is incumbent on every G-d Fearing Jew to INSIST and DEMAND that their MOHEL use a PIPETTE instead of direct oral to genital contact. Otherwise the blood of these innocent babies will be on your hands.
HSV-1 is Oral Herpes also known as cold sores and fever blisters, what part of that they are extremely contagious do you ghetto dwellers don’t understand? R’L
I am utterly disgusted by most of the comments on this page.
Fact: Jewish babies have died.
Fact: Medical experts consider MbP a likely cause.
Obvious conclusion: To prevent the possibility of more babies dying, MbP must be stopped completely (or done in a safe way) until the alleged link between MbP and death can be verified one way or the other.
But instead of addressing the problem and suggesting solutions, some people pretend that it doesn’t exist. They feel more threatened by external criticism than by the death of babies. (Read that last sentence again and weep.)
If this is the mainstream Charedi approach, then I don’t want to be Charedi anymore.
Has anyone thought of investigating the Health Department?
Regardless of its role in any specific recent case, metzitza b’peh is obviously a dangerously unsanitary procedure. Nobody in his right mind would allow anybody’s mouth on an open wound under any other circumstances. I do not blame the Jewish Week for considering it disgusting.
However, if the health authorities should intervene in this matter, where no more than half a dozen babies have been affected, what about a certain other practice (1000 l’havdils!) which has caused the death of half a million men in America alone? Why don’t we have the right to consider toevah disgusting and dangerous and do what we can to prevent its public acceptance?
Clearly many of you still have no understanding how medicine works and how pathogens, germs, infectious diseases and viruses are so easily transmitted in general, but more specifically to an open, raw, bleeding area.
Viruses are made up of their own DNA or RNA and we can verify a strain of herpes back to its host.
It is obvious that there have been incidences of babies acquiring herpes via mohel at the bris and it does not matter if this case is a matter of herpes or if it was another 3 cases. It has happened (and more than you know as it is underreported). Babies have also suffered other infections due to MBP.
Point is – ONE case of anything that jeopardizes a babies life because of MBP – is enough to have the practice banned due to pikuach nefesh – period!
Metzizah is still accepted when done with a sterile medium such as a pipette (NO whiskey and mouthwash does NOT get rid of germs, bacteria and ESPECIALLY virus)
This is a non-issue. Why people insist on protecting a mohel is beyond me. (It ocurred to e some families may fear the knowledge of a sons herpes could hurt a future shidduch) But safety of a baby should be first and foremost, anyone with common sense knows that.
Contrary to what commentators here have said, it is my understanding that Rabbi Fisher was asked to provide a DNA sample (cheek swab) in the presence of investigators but declined to do so. It was therefore not possible to compare his DNA fingerprint to the DNA fingerprint of the infants’ virus.
As for the other mohelim, they have not come forward, so once again, no DNA is available for comparison to that of the infected infants.
Chazal instituted metzitzah because the prevailing medical opinion of the time–that of Galen and Hippocrates–was that drawing blood from a wound helps it to heal. They were in fact correct–provided that it is done under sterile conditions. Only in the 19th Century did the successors of Galen and Hippocrates come to understand the existence of microbes, and only then did the successors of Chazal such as the Chasam Sofer decide that the procedure should be performed without direct oral contact.
There are people who think that the millions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa which normally inhabit the mouth of even the saintliest mohel could never cause harm in the performance of bris milah. They do not believe in science, and they do not believe in Torah. They believe in magic.
How could they disregard the shita of the Chasam Sofer? The strongest support for this practice comes from the Zohar. Take a look at Shu”t Chasam Sofer, volume 6, siman 59, and you will understand more of the underlying problem.