Posted on 07/26/2005 3:33:57 PM PDT by Selkie
Circumcising men can help protect them from the AIDS virus, researchers said on Tuesday after finishing the first study that tried using the procedure specifically to prevent infection.
But United Nations health officials cautioned that more trials were necessary before they would recommend this as a method to protect against AIDS.
The circumcised men were 65 percent less likely to become infected with the deadly and incurable virus, the researchers told the International AIDS Society Conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Several studies have suggested that men who are circumcised have a lower rate of HIV infection. This has been especially noticeable in some parts of Africa, where some groups are routinely circumcised while neighboring groups are not.
Researchers believe circumcision helps to cut infection risk because the foreskin is covered in cells that the virus seems able to easily infect. The virus may also survive better in a warm, wet environment like that found beneath a foreskin.
Bertran Auvert of the French National Research Agency INSERM and colleagues tested more than 3,000 uninfected men aged 18-24 South Africa's Guateng province, where 32 percent of adults are infected.
Some of the men were circumcised at the start of the trial while others had the procedure after 21 months. At the end of the trial, researchers registered 69 HIV cases, and only 18 of them were in the men who were circumcised at the start.
"It shows that the intervention (circumcision) prevented between six and seven out of 10 possible infections," said Auvert, noting that although the protection rate was high it was only partial.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Thats kinda like saying that since you are going to drive your car into a bridge abuttment at 80mph anyway grow your hair longer and you'll have a better chance of surviving a serious head injury
thanks to the extra padding.
It makes sense that there would be less disease transmission without the, er, holding area for germs. However, the obvious prevention would be not having sex with infected men!
"Study shows circumcision may reduce AIDS risk"
So does abstinence, but that's too complicated, I guess.
"Adult circumcision can be performed under local or regional anesthesia. Medical indications for this procedure include phimosis, paraphimosis, recurrent balanitis and posthitis (inflammation of the prepuce). Nonmedical reasons may be social, cultural, personal or religious.
The procedure is commonly performed using either the dorsal slit or the sleeve technique. The dorsal slit is especially useful in patients who have phimosis.
The sleeve technique may provide better control of bleeding in patients with large subcutaneous veins. A dorsal penile nerve block, with or without a circumferential penile block, provides adequate anesthesia.
Informed consent must be obtained. Possible complications of adult circumcision include infection, bleeding, poor cosmetic results and a change in sensation during intercourse.
It is important to provide the patient with adequate information about the procedure ahead of time. Specifically, the patient should be told about the risks of bleeding, hematoma formation, infection, inadvertent damage to the glans, removal of too much or too little skin, aesthetically unpleasing results and a change of sensation during intercourse.
The patient should also be informed that, during the postoperative period, erections can cause pain and disruption of the suture line that may require replacement of the sutures. Full recovery following circumcision generally requires four to six weeks of abstinence from all genital stimulation and sexual activity.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/990315ap/1514.html
(Seems to me, just the threat of adult circumcision would cut back on the activity which causes AIDS.)
Yes that would be nice, but hey you could even marry a guy and only have sex with him, but if he's having an affair on the side you could still get HIVif he picked up from his affair.
I know two kids who were church going virgins until marriage and then he slept around on his wife.
Im a control freak so Im all about lowering odds of bad stuff happening.
For me this just proves my attitude that uncut men are turn off due to their "holding area" as you put it. ROFL
Granted the study indicates that circumcised males are less likely to be infected when exposed, but it would be my surmise that on the whole, in this day and age, the circumcised male is less likely to be exposed in the first place.
Good point. And I agree with your aesthetic evaluation, too. ICK!
The joke is is that he and his wife are actually happy wiht the end result(s)
Tee hee
I predict a bunch of gay guys showing up in the emergency rooms with blody shorts when this gets well known.
bump!
You're just intolerant to men who want to sleep around with other males!
I'M JUST KIDDING!!!
It was just so obvious that I had to bite.
;-)
That doesn't make a difference in my social sphere to be honest.
The only guys I've ever known of who weren't circumcised were ALL europeans.
their attitude was that we Americans are barbaric to cut anyone.
Id loved to throw this new research in their faces
In fact Im faxing this story to my cousins in Ireland, Wales and France.
Are they dishing it out, or taking it?
You haven't known many Catholic Americans, have you?
Which is why I prefaced my remarks by stating that I was speaking in very general terms. I was clipped at birth, but other than that have spent little time studying the practice or the demographics. I do know that amongst parents in my age group (mid 30's) the vast majority of those who continue to advocate it do so for religious or at least traditional reasons, and tend to be more stable couples. Do I have numbers or stats? Nope...which is also why I tried to articulate that this was my guess and only that...
Actually Im Catholic, my BF is Catholic and I went to Catholic school thank you very much.
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