Circumcision Impedes HIV Infection in Africa

A medical investigation whose results were published on Friday presents conclusive data revealing that circumcision decreases men's risks of getting infected with HIV by up to 60 %.

The finding of two major trials were announced first in December. One trial was made in Kenya, involving 1,391 circumcised men compared to 1,393 counterparts that were not. The other trial was carried on in Uganda, involving 2,474 circumcised men compared to 2,522 uncircumcised men. The subjects were monitored for two years and the research team discovered that the circumcised men were 51-60 % less prone to get infected with HIV.

But the full data from the trials carried out by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, with an extended duration, were published on Friday in The Lancet.

The issue is how to apply this in the fight against AIDS across Africa. "This is an extraordinary development," said Dr. Kevin de Cock, director of the World Health Organization's AIDS department. "Circumcision is the most potent intervention in HIV prevention that has been described."

Researchers suspected for a long time that circumcision could decrease men's vulnerability to catching HIV, as the cells in the foreskin of the penis' gland are highly susceptible to act like "an entrance door" in the organism for the virus.

A 2006 modeling research estimated that in the next ten years, male circumcision could impede 2 million infections and 300,000 deaths.

In 2006, 2.8 million new cases of HIV occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, and 2.1 million people died of AIDS.

Similar results were achieved in a previous trial in South Africa. Several African countries intend to apply strategies for increasing circumcision, but many ask for more solid experiments and warn that circumcision is a surgery requiring more planning and an immunization campaign. "It's a tricky one, but it's something we're going to have to move on," said Dr. Catherine Hankins, a scientific adviser at UNAIDS. "Male circumcision is such a sensitive religious and cultural issue that we need to be careful."