NIH backs circumcision in AIDS fight
NBC exclusive: Top U.S. agency says procedure effective way to stop HIV
By Robert Bazell
Chief science and health correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 11:15 a.m. ET Dec. 13, 2006
Circumcising adult men is an effective way to stop transmission of the virus that causes AIDS. NBC News has learned that the National Institutes of Health will announce at Noon ET Wednesday that two clinical trials in Africa have been stopped because an independent monitoring board determined the treatment was so effective that it would be unethical to continue the experiment.

The NIH has been sponsoring two trials — one with 5,000 men ages 18 to 49 in Uganda and a second with 2,784 men of the same age in Kenya. Half the men voluntarily underwent circumcision. The men were then monitored for about two years. Far more of the uncircumcised men became infected with HIV.

This finding appears to apply only to heterosexual transmission which is the main mode of spread in Africa. Officials estimate that at least 25 million people in Africa are currently infected with the AIDS virus.

These findings present enormous ethical and policy decisions which have yet to be addressed. But scientists say the reduction of infection is so much that the findings cannot be ignored.

© 2006 MSNBC Interactive© 2006 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16184582/





My Views:


Championed by the South Africa the findings are now confirmed by the US.

This is where USA does good things to humanity.

This is advantage for male but what about female circumsion what is it's advantage ? :)




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well some african socities believe that if a female is circumsized that means they are pure and that kinda thing.but circumssion also leads to death in most cases and severe pain during birth.i dont agree with this whole idea about cirumsion

Circumcision does not prevent HIV infection per se, but it does reduce the risk of getting infected according to some sources

There are so many factors involved when it comes to getting infected with HIV & the foremost important is the HIV status of the individual you are exposed to through sex, having sex with someone who is having a high HIV viral load will infect any circumcised or un-circumcised person

Safe sex with condoms is the best way of protection against HIV

Female circumcision is an immoral act & has no effect on transmission of any STD whatsoever

Female circumcision is barbaric. I can't understand how mothers can put their own daughters throught it after their own experiences. I'd really like to see this practice outlawed everywhere and more education regarding it in Africa itself. It's just as barbaric as cutting a child's finger off "because it's tradition/custom/culture/belief"... children must always be protected.

Regarding male circumcision, I also read a while back that in a test group, those who were circumcised were effected less as a percentage. But the doctors fear that this may lead to more unprotected sex by circumcised individuals under the wrong impression that they are somehow "immune" to getting hiv and aids.

Safe sex with condoms is the best way of protection against HIV


.. since when do they have sex "with" condoms ?? usually wo/man have sex "with" man/wo :p i know what u mean!!

.. anyway that only might help.. but not the safest.