MbP - Knowledge is Power Revisited

A typical Bris ceremony (NY Daily News)

Although the issue has been somewhat dormant, it has not gone away. The procedure known as Metzitza B’Peh (MbP) is still going on. With pretty severe consequences should things go wrong.

One unidentified baby was rushed to the hospital 15 days after undergoing the ancient ritual, known as metzitzah b'peh, which involves cleaning the circumcision wound by oral suction.

That’s when the newborn developed a rash on his genitals, buttocks, inner thigh and ankle, according to a city Health Department alert issued to all medical personnel Wednesday morning.

“We literally heard about this case at some point in the afternoon yesterday,” Mayor de Blasio told reporters at an unrelated event. “We’re right now in that process of identifying the mohel (who performed the procedure), and we expect full cooperation from the community.”  

The city is zero for six in garnering full cooperation from the Hasidic community in rooting out mohels involved in neonatal herpes cases, but Mayor de Blasio says he still needs to evaluate whether a deal with the community is “working effectively or not.” 

Last week, health officials said just 2 of 6 mohels had been identified and that — rather than being tested — they were simply advised not to continue with the practice, known as metzitzah b’peh.