The United States has less than half the population of Europe yet nearly twice as many cases of HIV.
Huh? Total population of Europe in 2006: 807,289,000. Total population of the United States in 2006: 299,093,000.
HIV cases in Europe: 633,700 confirmed with 2 million estimated. HIV cases in the United States: 462,700 confirmed with 1.1 million estimated.
Your figures include the former Soviet Union and Turkey, which I didn't count (a) because of sociocultural differences; and (b) because Muslims are circumcised.
Moreover, the epidemic in the former Soviet Union has been primarily due to IV drug abuse transmission.
So, in short, that knocks 392,997 off your European figure.
Nice try though.
PS. And of course, if you do count the former Soviet Union and so on then the population is over two and a half times that of the United States, while the HIV load is less than one and a half times that of the United States.
So, in short, even then my point is more than made, especially when transmission in both Europe and the former Soviet Union has been far more heavily tilted toward IV drug users than in the United States.
The notion that circumcision prevents HIV is nonsense.
Oh, I see Israel was included too, so knock off another 4309 from your HIV figure. So, the figure for HIV diagnoses in Europe should be 236,075 versus 462,700 in the United States.
It's also noteworthy that Israel has twice the rate of Germany and a higher rate than France. It's also interesting that Britain, the only Western European nation where circumcision was common until the 1960s, has easily one of the highest rates in Western Europe.
Portugal (280.5 per million) and Luxembourg (130.7 per million) being the only nations in Western or Central Europe that surpass Britain (122.1 per million), and those for easily discerned reasons: Luxembourg is heavily urban and Portugal had a huge outbreak amongst heroin users about five or so years ago.
OK, I'm done with this now!