Fact Check: Circumcised men likely to die after 10 Years

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Circumcision

THE CLAIM: Circumcised men likely to die after 10 years

A story is making rounds on social media that a “study” conducted by “Deltas Clare” has found that the medication used for circumcised men reacts after 10 years.

Our newsroom investigative desk that set out on a quest to investigate the claims found this statement to be unsubstituted.

Firstly, there is no Organisation in the public domain that is based in the US by the name. This raised the first alarm in story.

Male circumcisionSecondly, there is no study that has recently been published recently by Wiki Leaks on circumcision.

Not only that, Wiki Leaks database does not have any research report by Deltas Clare or an organisation that goes by that name.

Lastly, a study of this great magnitude would have been published in high ranking journals and media outlets across the world.

In the contrary, a simple google search tracks the story to on-line and social media outlets in Zambia which are of questionable repute.

The sites include Zambian Watch and The Zambian Observer. A quick scan through these publications hints at the sites striving on either Fake News or unfounded gossip. A time stamp of the stories shows that the story was first published in Zambia on the two sites on 18 August 2018 around 14:30.

About 24 hours later, the story started making rounds in Malawi. Among those misled include self-stylized whistleblower and investigative journalist, Gerald Kampanikiza, who copied the story in verbatim and shared it on his Facebook profile on the 19 August.

VERDICT: FALSE
While medical effectiveness of circumcision in the first against HIV is yet to be established with conclusive evidence, our verdict drawn from the above evidence is that the story and all its claims are wholly false.

Would you like us to fact check another story of questionable validity? Message us at: https://m.me/­malawi24 or editor@malawi24.com.