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Circumcision reduces HIV incidence in Ugandan men and herpes prevalence in South Africans
Gus Cairns, 2012-03-10 17:10:00
The Nineteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections heard this week that a tenfold increase in medical male circumcision (MMC) in non-Muslim men in the Rakai district of Uganda has led to a 28% fall in HIV incidence since MMC was made widely available. Incidence in Muslim men, who are all circumcised and had a lower incidence rate in the first place, did not fall during the same period, so this fall appears to be a consequence of circumcision. No comparable fall (or rise) in HIV incidence has been seen in women so far, however, and only a third of non-Muslim men have yet become circumcised.
Another study from Orange Farm district in South Africa has found that since the roll-out of MMC in the area, the prevalence of herpes (HSV-2) is 23% lower in men who have become circumcised than ones who have not, though this is not as big a reduction in the 55% reduction in HIV prevalence seen.
Three randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of medical male circumcision as an HIV prevention measure took place in the mid-2000s and produced a reduction in HIV infections in circumcised, compared to uncircumcised, men ranging from 51% to 60%. Since 2007 programmes offering MMC to men in the areas where the RCTs happened have produced large increases in the proportion of men who are circumcised.Source:1
