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Male circumcision and HIV
15/07/2004 14:05 - (SA)
Bangkok - Male circumcision may have prevented HIV infection in some cases but the evidence is still not strong enough to make it a policy in the fight against Aids, a leading researcher said on Thursday.
Recent evidence from a study in Uganda revealed that while no circumcised men in a test group got infected after having sex with HIV positive women, nearly 17% who were not circumcised got infected, said Quarraisha Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist from the University of Natal.
Some studies suggest that the mucous lining of the inner foreskin is more susceptible to HIV infection than that of a woman's cervix.
At the same time, the inner foreskin has glands that secrete an enzyme that kills HIV, she told a plenary session at the International Aids Conference.
She did not say how many men were tested in the Uganda study.
However, "on the flip side", she cited an analysis of 13 studies, which showed a lack of association between HIV and male circumcision in the general population.
"In other words, the current evidence is insufficient to consider male circumcision as a public health intervention," she said. "There are several challenges to the feasibility and acceptability of widespread male circumcision."
Male circumcision is one of the methods discussed at the conference as a new method to prevent HIV infection along with vaccines, female condoms and vaginal gels that kill the virus.
- AP
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