Tamar Kahn
11 August 2008
Mexico City — Male circumcision not only protects men from getting HIV, but also lowers the risk of getting other sexually transmitted diseases, according to research presented last week at the 17th International AIDS Conference.
The finding is important as it adds to the growing body of evidence that male circumcision offers important health benefits for men and the women they have sex with.
Three previous large trials in Kenya, Uganda and SA investigating male circumcision found that it lowered the risk of HIV transmission in heterosexual men, but not in their female partners.
The risk reduction ranged from 50%-60%.
Further analysis of the volunteers involved in the South African Orange Farm study has now shown that circumcised men are 40% less likely to contract the human papilloma v irus, which causes cervical cancer in women and penile cancer in men, according to the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS) and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
Circumcised men are also less likely to contract t richomonas vaginalis, a parasitic infection that is usually asymptomatic in men, but causes severe discomfort in women and can lead to premature or low birth weight babies. It also increases women's susceptibility to HIV infection.
These findings may help explain why women with circumcised partners are at lower risk of some sexually transmitted diseases.
Researchers also found that circumcision was widely accepted among most men and women in a survey conducted at Orange Farm last year.
About 80% of the uncircumcised men said they would be willing to be circumcised if it was safe and free.
Nine out of ten women said they would accept their partner's decision. The survey included about 1200 men and 1400 women.
The results suggested that circumcision programmes could be implemented in communities where the practice was not common, provided they were accompanied by good public information campaigns, said Inserm researcher Bertran Auvert .
The researchers also found that 45% of the men who described themselves as circumcised had not actually had their foreskin removed.
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Talk about grabbing at straws.
I suppose this is why the hiv/aids infection rate is so low in Israel.All you have to do is look at it from the right angle and then CORRECTLY interpret the results.