THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2010 01:12 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2010 01:12

ADVERTISE WITH US | CONTACT US | STORY TIP-OFFS | M&G NEWSLETTER

News \| National \| Health

Circumcision does reduce risk of HIV, say researchers

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Apr 15 2009 10:36

0 comments | Post your comment

Male circumcision definitely reduces the risk of HIV infection, researchers at the South African Cochrane Centre announced on Wednesday.

The centre had previously held that there was not enough evidence to recommend circumcision as an intervention.

"Research on the effectiveness of male circumcision for preventing HIV in heterosexual men is conclusive," said lead researcher Nandi Siegfried, co-director of the centre, which is located at the South African Medical Research Council.

"No further trials are required to establish that HIV infection rates are reduced in heterosexual men for at least the first two years after circumcision."

She said policy makers could now consider using circumcision as an additional tool in HIV prevention programmes.

The Cochrane Collaboration is a highly respected international network of researchers that seeks to improve healthcare decision-making through systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions such as circumcision.

Siegfried said three recent African trials supported the conclusion that circumcision reduced HIV risk.

"After including new data from these trials in their review, Cochrane researchers have changed their previous conclusions that there was insufficient evidence to recommend circumcision as an intervention to prevent HIV infection in heterosexual men."

Previous studies had investigated the association between circumcision and HIV, but until now, Cochrane researchers had been unable to strongly recommend circumcision because of the lack of high quality evidence.

CONTINUES BELOW

Siegfried said circumcision might help to protect against HIV by removing cells in the foreskin to which the virus was specifically attracted.

These Langerhans cells had receptors that enabled the virus to enter them.

The new clinical trials included in the review took place in South Africa, Uganda and Kenya between 2002 and 2006, and included a total of 11 054 men.

The results show that circumcision in heterosexual men reduced their risk of acquiring HIV by an average 54% over a two-year period, compared with uncircumcised men.

Further research was needed to establish whether male circumcision offered any benefit to women partners of those circumcised men or to homosexual men.

She warned that policy makers also needed to think about the culture and environment in which circumcision was carried out. -- Sapa

TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE

Organisations

South African Cochrane Centre

Comments

You must be logged in to comment. Log in or sign up to comment

click here to log in

M&G Online Comment Guidelines In Brief

No hate speech;
No racist, sexist or homophobic remarks;
Keep it short;
Keep it on topic;
Show respect to all;
We reserve the right to remove or delete any comment without notice or reason.

Click here for the full Comment Guidelines

Advertising Links

Click hereÖ

Your M&G Online

Follow the Mail & Guardian on Twitter!

Direct message us on our mailandguardian account to chat to the M&G Online team.


		THIS WEEK'S PAPER Subscribe Subs promotions Get digital edition

Advertising links

OUDE MEESTER INSURANCE JUNCTION PROPERTY FOR SALE INTERNET SOLUTIONS COMPAQ LAPTOPS	MAP SEARCH HOLIDAY FINDER BID OR BUY INSURANCE YOU CAN TRUST

Circumcision does reduce risk of HIV, say researchers

Tags

Organisations

M&G Online Comment Guidelines In Brief

Your M&G Online

Advertisements

Advertising links