Studies: Circumcision Reduces HIV Risk

AP ^ | Feb 22, 2007 | MARIA CHENG

[US admirer]

LONDON (AP) - Scientists say conclusive data shows there is no question circumcision reduces men's chances of catching HIV by up to 60 percent - a finding experts are hailing as a major breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. Now, the question is how to put that fact to work to combat AIDS across Africa.

The findings first were announced in December, when initial results from two major trials - in Kenya and Uganda - showed promising links between circumcision and HIV transmission. However, those trials were deemed so definitive that the tests were halted early.

The full data from the trials, carried out by the United States' National Institutes of Health, were published Friday in The Lancet.

"This is an extraordinary development," said Dr. Kevin de Cock, director of the World Health Organization's AIDS department. "Circumcision is the most potent intervention in HIV prevention that has been described."

Circumcision has long been suspected of reducing men's susceptibility to HIV infection because the cells in the foreskin of the penis are especially vulnerable to the virus...

[RipSawyer]

Is it the surgery or the types of families that have it done and the environment where boys don't grow up to be gay?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Or is it simply that people will forever grasp at straws to justify the barbarous act of male circumcision rather than admit that it serves no worthwhile purpose.

[RipSawyer]

Mostly has been done because it is an insurance billable procedure.

Remember folks...follow the money
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I hear the pleasing sound of a hammer striking a nail squarely on the head.

[longtermmemmory]

It still is the only reason.

These studies are dubious at best. It is the same old BS science done by the usual advocates of circumcision. IOW done to justify their religious perspective into the scientific realm.

These are the same quality scientists who opposed lumpectomies vs radical mastectomies. (or radical hysterectomies vs polyp removal.)

[longtermmemmory]

How long before feminsts jump on the band waggon and argue castration reduces HIV too?

[GSlob]

by circumcizing the upper head [also known as decapitation], HIV risk is nor merely reduced but eliminated altogether.

[George W. Bush]

You can expect the anti-snipper brigade. They froth more than a pack of anti-Semites. Hmm...those two groups do have something in common...

[George W. Bush]

Is it the surgery or the types of families that have it done and the environment where boys don't grow up to be gay?

Transmission of AIDS via anal sex is as deadly whether the 'catcher' is male or female. Although a deviant practice harmful to either sex, heterosexual couples have copied the practice of sodomites in the last few generations.

[Zeroisanumber]

How about abstinence until marriage, then a monogmous heterosexual relatiionship with one's spouse thereafter? There is a solution, unfortunately people don't want to follow it becuase it's not easy.

Or simply not for them.

Instead, let's spend billions on drug research and other grasping at straws measures like circumcision.

It's not a cure, but a 60% decrease in the chance of catching AIDS is pretty decent protection.

[Chickensoup]

I hear the pleasing sound of a hammer striking a nail squarely on the head.


"blush"

[Chickensoup]

HIV risk is nor merely reduced but eliminated altogether.


I dont believe it.

[GSlob]

'I don't believe it."
Decapitation [aka upper circumcision] completely removes all health risks, including that of AIDS. The only remaining thing left is a sanitary disposal of the patient.

[Chickensoup]

Decapitation [aka upper circumcision



Got it.

[Chickensoup]

From the article::

In areas where HIV is spread primarily through heterosexual sex, such as sub-Saharan Africa, male circumcision could theoretically slash the infection rate in half.

It is unknown whether circumcision would be equally effective in concentrated AIDS epidemics, as in Asia and eastern Europe, where AIDS primarily strikes gay men and drug users.

[jslade]

No, not sticking your penis in another man's rectum prevents AIDS.

[neverdem]

Thanks, bfl

[Neo-Luddite]

We're from the U.N.--we're here to mutilate your genitals for your own good. We are confident that you will line up after hearing tripe about '60%' reduction without stopping to consider that we are saying your prior risk of infection was (let's say) 10 out of 100 and will be reduced to 4 out out 100. THAT IS WHAT THE NUMBERS ARE REALLY DESCRIBING.

Unless we go oopsie and chop off your willie proper.

Gee, that's swell.

[Andrew Byler]

They froth more than a pack of anti-Semites. Hmm...those two groups do have something in common...

So its anti-semitic to oppose routine circumcision of non-Jews/Muslims?

[George W. Bush]

That isn’t what I said. But the hysteria of the two groups is similar.

[Andrew Byler]

But the hysteria of the two groups is similar.

I think you'd be quite hysterical too if someone was promoting the notion of chopping off the tip of your willy without anesthetic as a wonderful health tonic had it not already been done to you as a child.

It amazes me that Americans now oppose female circumcision (although it was promoted in times past) as barbaric, but promote the same in males. Some consistency again would be refreshing. If its barbaric if involuntarily performed on female children, it should also be for men.