Circumcision can prevent HIV infection

The longstanding observation that circumcision protects against HIV infection to some degree has been confirmed. Circumcision in adult heterosexual men is as effective in preventing new HIV infections as a vaccine that is 65 percent effective rate, as declared at the 3rd International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment. Researchers from the University Versailles Saint-Quentin in France randomly assigned the 3,000 sexually active men living near South Africa, who described themselves as heterosexual, to one of two groups: those who accepted circumcision immediately, and those who agreed to wait 20 months for the procedure. After 21 months, the researchers diagnosed 69 new HIV cases - 51 in the uncircumcised group and 18 in the circumcised group. They calculated the efficacy of circumcision to be 65 percent. The researchers conducted the trial by first identifying heterosexual men between the ages of 18 and 24 who were healthy and sexually active, and who said they were willing to be circumcised if it were safe and could be proven to reduce their risk of HIV infection. These men were living in a neighborhood near Johannesburg, with high rates of HIV transmission and a circumcision rate of approximately 20 percent. Prior to this study, the researchers had conducted a feasibility pilot study that found that 70 percent of men would consider circumcision if it were beneficial and safe. Physicians conducted the procedures using local anaesthetic and sterile techniques. Because the men in the study identified themselves as heterosexual, the data concern transmission only from women to men. The findings therefore cannot be generalised to man-to-man transmission or man-to-woman transmission.