Panama
Deep-built0.95% circumcision prevalence
Prevalence of non-therapeutic male circumcision.
Research coverage
A transparent snapshot of what this file currently contains.
8
Sources · Citations
5
Verifications · Independent
0
Structured claims · Evidence-based
Jul 9, 2026
Last updated · deep-built
Research note: Panama DEEP_BUILT 2026-07-12. Morris 2016 PMC4772313: 0.95% (confirmed 3-0 as ACCURATE, not an OCR error, despite being a genuine 6-9x outlier vs the other 4 Central American countries in this batch). CRITICAL: the causal explanation commonly attached to this figure (Jewish population + US Canal Zone influence) was REFUTED - the NUMBER is real but the EXPLANATION is unproven/excluded. DISTINCTIVE: Panama has the largest Jewish community in Central America (qualitative claim well-corroborated) BUT a commonly-cited "30,000+" figure is an OVERSTATEMENT - corrected range is ~10,000-12,000 (World Jewish Congress ~10,000 incl. 1,000+ Israelis; DellaPergola 2012 academic estimate 10,000-12,000). Guna people: clean negative finding, no documented circumcision-related religious practice. Canal Zone US-influence circumcision pattern explicitly sought, NOT found (honest gap). No statute found (not on ARC Law's list). No verified MALE harm case (honest gap - Embera/Wounaan FGC is a SEPARATE matter, deliberately excluded, never conflated). HIV ~1.1% (2023, World Bank/UNAIDS - WebSearch supplement). UNREGULATED. NOT VMMC priority. Sources #1486-1493. THIRD of Batch 4 (Central America).
Research claims
Short, testable claims backed by evidence and categorised for clarity.
No structured research claims have been added for Panama yet.
Legal status
UnregulatedThis research did not locate a Panamanian statute specifically addressing non-therapeutic male circumcision. This research did not independently verify Panama's female genital mutilation legal status, including with respect to documented Embera/Wounaan practices — that is a wholly separate matter from male circumcision and must not be conflated with it.
Medical & HIV context
1.1%
Adult HIV prevalence
UNAIDS/WB (2023) · Adults 15–49
no
Circumcision in newborns
Non-therapeutic (cultural practice)
minority-only (Jewish community)
Typical age
Benchmarks are international context — not a local complication rate.
Incident registry
No verified incidents are currently recorded for Panama.
This absence should not be read as proof that harm does not occur — only that no verified, sourced case has been documented in this database yet.