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"Circumcised men face lower HIV risk"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(15/12/06)
WASHINGTON: Circumcising men may cut in half their risk of getting the AIDS
virus through heterosexual intercourse, the US government announced, as it
shut down two studies in Africa testing the link.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Wednesday that it closed the
studies in Kenya and Uganda early, when safety monitors took a look at
initial results this week and spotted the protection. The studies'
uncircumcised men are being offered the chance to undergo the procedure.
The link between male circumcision and HIV prevention was noted as long ago
as the late 1980s. The first major clinical trial, of 3,000 men in South
Africa, found last year that circumcision cut the HIV risk by 60%.
Still, many AIDS specialists had been awaiting the NIH's results as a final
confirmation.
“Male circumcision can lower both an individual's risk of infection, and
hopefully the rate of HIV spread through the community,'' said AIDS expert
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases.
But it was not perfect protection, Fauci stressed. Men who become
circumcised must not quit using condoms nor take other risks – and
circumcision offers no protection from HIV acquired through anal sex or
injection drug use, he noted.
“It's not a magic bullet, but a potentially important intervention,” agreed
Dr Kevin De Cock of the World Health Organisation — AP
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