New York, NY – The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has issued an “alert” to the city’s medical community following a January 2014 case of neonatal herpes following the Jewish circumcision ritual metzitzah b’peh, or MBP.
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According to the document, the newborn was the product of a full term pregnancy and underwent the MBP ritual on his 8th day of life, after which a doctor conducting a routine check-up the following week noticed a rash on the child.
After a series of unsuccessful treatments, HSV-1 (herpes simplex virus, type 1) was suspected and specimens were collected and sent off to the New York State Wadsworth Center Laboratories.
The child was hospitalized for treatment after the diagnosis of HSV-1 was confirmed.
According to the release it is the 14th laboratory-confirmed case of MBP-related HSV-1 on record at the Health Dept. since 2000, two of which resulted in death—while yet another two young boys suffered brain damage.
The issue of MBP has continued to be a hot-button topic for New Yorkers, more specifically New York’s Jewish community after former-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s implementation of parental consent forms sparked outrage.
At a January 16 news conference, new Mayor Bill de Blasio doubled down on his campaign promise to work with Jewish community members and religious leaders to actively seek an alternative to the consent forms, but said that for the time being they will remain in place.
It boggles my mind. Use a straw! Your mouth does not have to be on an open, bleeding wound. It disgusts me that people are fighting this and fighting the consent form.
How do they know its from MBP? Anyway the torah does not giving us a mitzva where we can get sick, שומר מצוה לא ידע דבר רע (we doing it already 5500 years & no one will stop us doing it)
So, I always understood that pikuach nefesh trumped every other mitzvah. Isn’t it time for us all to agree that it finally trumps MPB. The medical evidence is getting more clear and we are making our children sick. This is undisputable. I simply can’t believe that Hashem would ask us to something that could potentially hurt or kill our children. Hashem even gave Avraham a way out before anything happened to Yitzchak.
How did the laboratory confirm that the virus was “MBP related”??
Unfortunately, there is a very big center in Monroe for children with special needs. The vast majority are boys and the suspicion is that they’re a product of MBP.
Actually, we are ourselves special needs, because we don’t want to realize that MBP is only a health remedy not part of the Mitzvah.
So they are jumping to conclusions AGAIN that this is MBP related as opposed to ANY other way he could have received it.
Refuah sh’laima to the kid!
How many people were seriously injured in auto accidents? And don’t throw percentages around–every life is equally important, not the percentages.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have asked the Mohel to provide a certificate of testing that he did not have Herpes of the mouth. If no Mohel was available with said certificate, we would have done Metzitza some other way. Why put your babies life at risk?
No proof that it is related to MBP here. It is probably hospital related or doctor’ office related like all non-MBP cases nationwide.
Accordingly hospitals and doctors should be banned!!!
Moshe Rabeinu traveled by Camels and Donkeys, why do you use a car? Is it possible the only reason this started is that MBP was the safest way to clean the wound at that time? Time for this tradition to go. Kapores with chickens in middle of Boro Park should be next.
Maybe the family should investigate in advance the health of the mohel and keep their child healthy, and keep the anti religous out of this.
How about asking the moehel to volunterily test himself and rule out himself as the source.
herpes simplex virus 1 is ORAL herpes. this is not genital herpes (herpes simplex virus 2) that is transmitted from sexual intercourse. hsv1 would not normally be present on someone’s genitals unless it was transmitted by someone’s mouth (it is possible from oral sex). if a baby has hsv1 on his genitals then the culprit must be the mohel because that’s where the virus is present! doctors are not idiots, and they are not looking to cause a war in our community for nothing. metzitza b’pah is not a safe practice – end of story. anyone who says otherwise is refusing to see basic facts. how many more horror stories have to happen before rabbanim stand up and finally end this practice?!
Alterg, Mark Levin, Reb Yid and all your ilk…You are a bunch of Flat Earthers…denying clear science. B”H the Mesorah has the Rambam who teaches us how wrong you are.
This fight is sociological and not Halachic, with the Chareidi ghetto dwellers defiantly sticking to their guns because No-Goyishe-Knowledge-No-How will ever change how they live. Reminds me of Monsey Chassidim I met at a tisch for whom wrist watches, and even for some leather shoes, are out because they are “too mo-dern.”
Using a glass tube may not be their shita, but I don’t hear these long-for-the-alter-heim-neanderthals saying that a bris milah peformed with one isn’t kosher. For the sake of the handful of families who would be saved from tragedy, they should just give it up.
Did anyone check the Mohel, (if he’s not infected, then its proof it was not him).
Did anyone check the other siblings, or the parents.
Did anyone verify if the delivery room staff washed their hands before or between patients. (Its a documented fact that hand washing is frequently ignored in hospitals).
Did anyone check if other babies delivered in that hospital around that time also got herpes? What about nurses in the hospital nursery?
Did anyone study how many goyish babies with no bris (and certainly no MPB) have herpes? and at what ratio of population?
Simple question; Is there a statisical difference between mbp babies and nonMBP babies? This answers the question.
I accuse #5 of lying. Please back up your statement and tell us which ‘facility’ has such a problem.
All we have is a baby with herpes. Yes he had a bris, he also had a taxi ride or whatever.
To #1 ; Your disgust does not trump my religious freedom, Mind boggles notwithstanding. I dont agree the baby is harmed.
To #3; With all due respect Hashem did not ‘give Avraham a way out”. Hashem told him to put Yitzchok on the Mizbayach(if you read the words carefully you will notice it does not say ‘kill’ him, only put him on the mizbayach, and Then told him to take him off. It was not multiple choice.
To #5 ; BACK IT UP !! Its a mitzvah we do, not a health remedy. We fast on Yom kippur before we realized it has health benefits. With dont eat chometz on pesach before we heard of ‘cleansing’ our body from yeast. we dont eat pig before we heard of its sickness. we are not promiscuous before we heard of STD.
Bottom line mitzvah are done because we are told to. The fact that Hashem protects us is a religious/philosophical debate.
According to the CDC 1 out of 3500 babies get infected with “Neonatal herpes simplex” .
There are about 7000 MBP done per year. As long as there are 2-3 case per year it would fall in the normal range even without MBP.
For them to say it is definetly from MBP without any DNA proof matching it to the Mohel makes very skeptical what their motives are. I find a pattern in the whole “enlighten world” that after 4000 years all of a sudden Bris Milah in general became very “unhealthy barbaric and backward” while LGBT activity which in NYC alone adds 5000 cases of HIV per year Plus 11 other viruses is considerd “normal healthy and elightened” behavier” .
How many female infants in the frum community are diagnosed with MBP? If there are far fewer females than males we can assume that MBP is caused by factors that effect boys but not girls.
According to the CDC 15% of kids born to HIV mothers are HIV positive.
Per the CDC over 80% of HIV women contracted the virus from a male that got it from “gay relations”.
So if the suspected herpes infection rate from MBP is per CDC 0.03% versus 15% for HIV babies why at the minimum dosent the GOV. force every gay person to sign a CONSENT form before they engage in “extremly unhealthy activity”?
That hypocraty is what make me very skeptical as to the true motive of the goverment.
Can someone please explain to me the reason for MBP? I have been told there is big mesorah for it etc – but that still doesn’t explain why it is still done today. I am sure that Avrohom Avinu didn’t use gloves, sterilizing ointments & bandages like we use nowadays. I guess that MBP is meant to clean the wound, but would anyone ever consider asking his / her doctor to suck on any other wound?
What the Mesorah reason for MBP?
14 cases in 14 years, that’s 1 case per year and even that is not fact. Non circumcised children also get herpes of this nature.
Many commentators hear are vehemently denying that this is a result of MBP. You have that choice. That’s fine, you can continue to put your children at risk, mine will not be exposed to this risk.
What a wonder folks. Do a disgustingly illicit procedure and your kid gets a very bad infection that is lifelong. Way to go to the ultra Chassidic community. Your shoes are just getting bigger and bigger.
The Gemoroh and all the Rishonim and Noiseh Kelim on Shilchon Orech, including the Mishne Berura say the the reason for MBP is Health Remedy. If it would be part of the Mitzvah, it would be silly to say Health Remedy,. (Priah is Doche Shabos even though its not health remedy)
The fact is that we don’t do MBP on older boys and adults, why, because it’s Not part of the Mitzvah, period.
Many of us do not accept the theory of evolution, but we all accept the germ theory of disease. If any one of us had a dermatologist remove a growth and then suck on it with his mouth, we’d go screaming to lawyers and the Board of Health. Why do we risk infection in our infant sons?
will someone please explain to me what’s the purpose of a consent form? How does that protect the child? That the Mohel should be tested – that does make sense.
Too many of you pithy minded people like yonassanw or whatever your name is would drop mitzvos and avayros because they aren’t in sync with “modern” thinking.
I’ll stick to torah and my mesorah thank you. You could follow the MO who are more M than O!
Hold on – what would be the halachic problem with having the mohel tested? Even though this problem doesn’t happen often, still, for the baby who is infected, it’s a nightmare.
If you do some research on infants contracting youll find that Herpes is most likely to be transmitted to a baby from the mother and this is typically herpes type 2. For a baby to get oral herpes or type 1 is not as common. This particular baby did get type 1 which is orally transmitted. Is there really any question as to how this baby contracted type 1? Talk to anybody who specializes in transmission of infectious diseases if you need more information.
According to the release it is the 14th laboratory-confirmed case of MBP-related HSV-1 on record at the Health Dept. since 2000,
Is it confirmed that related to MBP? Or its confirmed HSV-1 positive case on a baby that had MBP?
How many HSV-1 possitives was confirmed on babies this age that didn’t had MBP? Is there a record? If yes, why don’t they say that? That will proof there case better. But they aren’t talking about that!!!