Two more babies have been stricken with herpes in NYC’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community after participating in a ritual known as metzitzah b’peh. 

According to that National Hospital Discharge Survey, 55 percent of male infants were circumcised in 2007. Metzitzah b’peh, however, is a controversial circumcision ritual that isn’t practiced among all Jews. According to The New York Times, New York City estimated in 2012 that metzitzah b’peh is performed in approximately 3,600 NYC circumcisions each year.

Jewish law mandates that all baby boys be circumcised on the eighth day of life. After the removal of the foreskin, some ultra-Orthodox Jews have a mohel perform metzitzah b’peh on their child. NPR says that the mohel takes a mouthful of wine and places his mouth around the base of the baby’s penis and sucks away the blood to clean the wound. Proponents of the controversial ritual argue that it removes bacteria from wound.

According to ABC News, one of the two babies stricken with herpes developed a lesion on his scrotum seven days after the controversial circumcision ritual was performed. The health department said that tests for herpes came pack positive.

Herpes can be deadly for babies. Jay Varma, the city’s deputy commissioner for disease control, told ABC News that herpes can cause “severe illness and death” in some infants because their immune systems aren’t fully developed.

In 2012, NYC began requiring that parents sign a consent form that acknowledges that they are aware of the health risks linked to metzitzah b’peh. The parents of the two herpes-stricken babies are reported to have not signed the consent forms.

Since 2000, 13 cases of herpes have been linked to the controversial circumcision practice.

Should this practice be legal in the United States? Share your thoughts in the comments section.