March 12, 2010

Study: Circumcision Might Not Prevent HIV Transmission Among MSM

While studies in Africa have shown that circumcised heterosexual men are as much as 60 percent less likely than their uncircumcised peers to contract HIV from female partners, a new three-year study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that circumcision does not necessarily prevent transmission among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Western countries, Reuters reports.

In the study, which was published in the journal AIDS, the CDC examined HIV infection rates among nearly 4,900 men in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands who took part in an HIV vaccine clinical trial. They found no evidence that circumcision affected HIV transmission risk. The agency is considering whether to recommend circumcision to high-risk heterosexual men and whether there is suitable evidence to recommend circumcision for MSM.

According to Deborah A. Gust, PhD, MPH, and her colleagues at the CDC, many HIV-positive people in Western, developed countries are on HIV regimens that reduce the risk of transmission. Furthermore, circumcision would not affect HIV risk from receptive anal sex, which she says would outweigh any protective value of circumcision during insertive sex.

Researchers note that, just as other CDC scientists have concluded, circumcision would likely have a “limited” impact on HIV transmission in the United States.

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Previous Comments:

Mark Lyndon, , 2010-03-23 09:35:35
Circumcision is a dangerous distraction in the fight against AIDS. There are six African countries where men are *more* likely to be HIV+ if they've been circumcised - Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, and Swaziland. Eg in Malawi, the HIV rate is 13.2% among circumcised men, but only 9.5% among intact men. In Rwanda, the HIV rate is 3.5% among circumcised men, but only 2.1% among intact men. If circumcision really worked against AIDS, this just wouldn't happen.

Lynn S, Missouri, 2010-03-16 21:53:16
I have said this for years and have always included links to studies listing the enzymes produced by the foreskin that fight disease, but it never gets printed. US has highest circ. rate in world and fastest growing HIV rate in developed world.

James Loewen, Vancouver, BC, 2010-03-16 19:12:38
Time will reveal the obvious, that trying to apply circumcision to AIDS is as ridiculous as every other ailment in the long list that those who look for excuses to circumcise have used in the past 100+ years. Looking at the African studies the one thing that stands out is the rush to apply circumcision and to shout down any opposition. The focus on circumcision has undermined the whole safer sex campaign of the past 20 years.

David Salyer, Atlanta, 2010-03-16 11:14:03
Well, DUH. Those African studies were never applicable to western MSM. And they always reeked of bias on the part of the researchers, who apparently want every male on the planet circumcised.

bigolpoofter, College Park, MD, 2010-03-12 15:59:27
REALLY??!! How much money was blown on this study to verify the abundantly obvious--that's the real story! CDC already knew that insertive male partners had less risk regarding HIV from unprotected anal intercourse and that the foreskin covers the glans, not the anus... at least on all of the men I've had sex with!