NYT: Circumcision’s Anti-AIDS Effect Found Greater Than First Thought

[Sgent]

Circumcision may provide even more protection against AIDS than was realized when two clinical trials in Africa were stopped two months ago because the results were so clear, according to studies being published today.

The trials, in Kenya and Uganda, were stopped early by the National Institutes of Health, which was paying for them, because it was apparent that circumcision reduced a man’s risk of contracting AIDS from heterosexual sex by about half. It would have been unethical to continue without offering circumcision to all 8,000 men in the trials, federal health officials said.

<snip>

The December announcement described only the follow-up on the men as originally divided into two groups: those who agreed to be circumcised and those who agreed not to. But some in the first group never went to the circumcision clinic, and some in the second had private circumcisions before the study ended.

Re-evaluating the data, excluding a few men whose H.I.V. status was misdiagnosed during the trial and combining the results of three trials — those in Uganda and Kenya as well as one in South Africa that was stopped in 2005 when the protective effect became apparent — produces a protection rate of about 65 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/science/23hiv.html

[David Zephyr]

1. Cultural preferences aside, this science is in and it's overwhelming now.

I cringe at the thought of circumcision, however the statistics in study after study show that it makes a big difference in helping prevent contracting the HIV virus.

I am not a fan of circumcision, but there's a point where denying what is now apparent - especially by liberals - is reactionary. We make fun of "creationists" and ridicule those that still foolishly harbor reservations about the science of global warming...and then, many of us do the same thing on this issue ourselves.

Saving lives, preventing the horror of AIDS should require all of us to suck in our prejudices and let our minds rule.

[Warpy]

2. Circumcision doesn't confer immunity

and doctors offering it need to explain that thoroughly. However, circumcision does slow the successful transmission of the virus. That plus more reliable condom use could possibly slow it from an epidemic to a nuisance.

[David Zephyr]

4. I didn't say it confers immunity..

I wrote this: "the statistics in study after study show that it makes a big difference in helping prevent contracting the HIV virus." Helps prevent.

Still, I agree with everything you wrote. Circumcision is just one more tool in the tool kit along with condoms, safe sex practices and lots of education.

[pnwmom]

7. That's exactly right. The WHO's only reluctance on this issue

has been how to publicize it without making people think that it obviates the need for condoms. It doesn't. The best protection, by far, is to have a circumcision AND always practice safe sex.

[TahitiNut]

3. I can hear it now ...

... "Circumcision only encourages pre-marital sex!" (Jerry Falafawell)

(Except he wouldn't be consistent, of course.)

[David Zephyr]

6. Ha!

That made my evening, TahitiNut. I can go home now. Good to hear from you! :hi:

[Warren DeMontague]

9. That'd be ironic, since one of the reasons it was promoted in decades past was to stop masturbation.

Hey, I find this science interesting- I do. It's worth considering.

But the zeal with which some seize upon this stuff to lecture folks that they MUST circumcise their kids, really, makes me wonder what the agenda actually is.

[Orrex]

5. Clearly this is further disinformation by the anti-foreskin lobby

Forgive my paranoia, but the trauma of my mutilation haunts me lo these many years hence.

edited to add some :sarcasm:

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. Why, exactly?

I very strongly suspect the matter is hygiene, and that an uncircumcised man with access to soap and clean water and who has a habit of keeping his genitals clean before and after sex is less likely to be infected with HIV than a circumcised man with no access to soap and clean water and who therefore does not have a habit of keeping his genitals clean.