Israeli doctors have found a herpes (HSV-1) infection in a 2-and-a-half-year-old boy they believe came from metzitzah b'peh (MBP), the direct mouth-to-bloody-penis sucking done by many mohels (and almost all hasidic mohels) just after cutting off the baby's foreskin and ripping off the membrane under it. If correct, these doctors may have found the cause of what many believe to be the noticeably higher number of learning disabled children in hasidic communities.
A Chabad mohel doing MBP last year in Brooklyn
Penile Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Infection Presenting Two and a Half Years After Jewish Ritual Circumcision of an Infant
Orit Yossepowitch, MD,* Tamar Gottesman, MD,* Orna Schwartz, MSc,Þ Michal Stein, MD,þ§ Francis Serour, MD,þ§ and Michael Dan, MD*§ • [Journal of] Sexually Transmitted Diseases, publiched by the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association
The association between Jewish ritual circumcision and genital herpes simplex virus type 1 infection has been well described. We report a case of genital herpes that first presented at the age of 22 years. We believe that the infection was acquired asymptomatically through direct orogenital [mouth-to-penis] suction performed during circumcision [by the mohel]…The most plausible source of the virus in the present case was acquisition from the oral secretions of the mohel, mainly because the eruption involved almost exclusively the corona of the glans penis, mirroring the circumcision wound and the immediate contact with the mohel’s saliva.…
The infant’s mother tested positive for HSV-1 antibodies. Maternal antibodies do not guarantee protection of the infant from acquiring the infection. Indeed, in 3 of the previously described cases, penile postnatal HSV-1 developed after circumcision despite maternal HSV-1 antibodies. Nonetheless, the presence of antibodies in the mother might have played a role in the asymptomatic nature of the primary [original] infection of the infant [immediately following his circumcision].…
We cannot exclude another form of postnatal acquisition of the virus from a caregiver with oral infection may be it the parents, other members of the family, or day care personnel.12 Upon questioning, the patents denied any orogenital [direct mouth-to-penis]contact with the infant. Still, even if an orogenital contact with a caregiver did happen, one would expect the genital eruption to be more extensive than it was.…
If correct, these doctors may have also found the cause of what many
believe to be the noticeably higher number of learning disabled children
in hasidic communities – sub-clinical MBP-transmitted
HSV-1 infections. This cause and effect was first suggested by Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dovid Tendler of Yeshiva University several years ago.
Here's the case study as a PDF file: