Did you hear this HIV news?

Question

NYT
Published: December 14, 2006
Circumcision appears to reduce a man’s risk of contracting AIDS from heterosexual sex by half, United States government health officials said yesterday, and the directors of the two largest funds for fighting the disease said they would consider paying for circumcisions in high-risk countries.

An easy way to stop half of our world wide HIV ?
Do you agree with the idea of circumcisions
to prevent HIV.?
What do you think about this?

The announcement was made by officials of the National Institutes of Health as they halted two clinical trials, in Kenya and Uganda, on the ground that not offering circumcision to all the men taking part would be unethical. The success of the trials confirmed a study done last year in South Africa.
AIDS experts immediately hailed the finding. “This is very exciting news,” said Daniel Halperin, an H.I.V. specialist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development, who has argued that circumcision slows the spread of AIDS in the parts of Africa where it is common.

In an interview from Zimbabwe, he added, “I have no doubt that as word of this gets around, millions of African men will want to get circumcised, and that will save many live
Uncircumcised men are thought to be more susceptible because the underside of the foreskin is rich in Langerhans cells, sentinel cells of the immune system, which attach easily to the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/health/14hiv.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Answer 1

Circumcision can save over two million in the next 15 years. This is very serious and should not be taken as a joke.

All these studies have been carried out by prestigious and respectable research institutions and universities, and are back in many cases by official organisations such as the US National Institutions of Health or the World Health Organisation.

Why uncircumcised men are more prone to STD’s?

Scientist have discovered that the skin covering the inner side of the foreskin is by its nature (has a very low amount of a protein called ‘keratin’ which stops viruses entering into the body, plus some other factors) acts as an ‘open door’ to STD’s. Circumcision, by removing the foreskin, ‘closes’ this ‘door’.

Circumcision rates are increasing nowadays, both in the United States and overseas. Many African and South American countries with little circumcision tradition are starting to promote the procedure to help to reduce the AIDS-HIV infection rates.

The sites below have very interesting information related to this topic. Please have a look.

http://www.baby-health.net/articles/381.html

http://icuxbridge.icnetwork.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=14095142&method=full&siteid=53340&headline=-circumcision-protects-against-aids--name_page.html

Answer 2

Don't know where you heard that. Personally, I am with the scientists who think AIDS is a virus that came to Earth when it passed through a comets tail. Sounds bizarre I know. But put it all together. Ancients believed comets were omens of ill. Many legends have a basis in fact. When a comet passed the Earth, the Black Plague hit Europe. The Earth moves through space at about 10,000 mph. Pretty fast. They think the organism only hit the surface in parts of Africa, and Haiti. Gods revenge? Hardly, cause and circumstance. Did you know HIV is not AIDS? One can have HIV and not have AIDS. They are bleeding us for money. Giving many false fears, and others false hope, calling AIDS HIV.

Answer 3

I commented on a very similar article found on Yahoo! (see link). Clearly, one important factor that none of these articles takes into account is the complication rate of circumcision compared to the percent of men in the study who got HIV. It appears that one is just as likely to get a complication from circumcision as get HIV from being not circumcised.

Furthermore, it is likely that the complication rate in Africa is significantly higher than, say, the US. More money and effort would need to be used to fund the proper facilities and training to minimize the risks (and of deaths) from the procedure itself than to promote safe sex, improve education, and provide more condoms. Even if the data is correct and is presented correctly, there are too many other factors to make circumcision truly effective.

Answer 4

As far as I can tell, nobody asked the men how often they had sex and how many partners they had, so my guess is that circumcision cut way down on all types of sexual activity (because it cut down on pleasure).

In Africa, where these studies were done, condoms are expensive, hard to find, and culturally unacceptable. The study has little relevance to other areas of the world where they are cheap, abundant, and acceptable to most men. HIV is actually more common in the US, where most sexually-active men have been cut, than in Europe, with a sexually intact male population, probably because needle-sharing is more common in the US, so why not try to prevent needle-sharing instead of sexually mutilating men who are at low risk..

Answer 5

This is VERY old news. This research was done when I was working in a health clinic 13 years ago. The reason for the increase in the spread of HIV in uncircumcised men is due to the virus being trapped under the foreskin and entering through the mucos membranes.

Answer 6

Protected sex and carefull attitudes towards blood/ needles prevent HIV not circumcision.

PS: Did you also know that the results of the tests in South Africa were founded to be flawed and subsequently withdrawn about a month later? (I should know, I live in South Africa)

Oh and Maple: Make sure of your facts before making statements about a continent you obviously don't know anything about. Condoms are given away free to even the most rural locations all across South Africa and many other African countries (Once again I should know as I was Born,bred and raised in good old South Africa)

Answer 7

Yes, have you heard of circumcision for answers. Interrogators begin the circumcision process if the subject won't answer the question. I don't think most Muslims are circumcised, It's too Jewish.

Answer 8

Yes, circumcision is the way to go. Add the HIV resistance to all the other benefits of circumcision and the case for circumcising all men is overwhelming!

Answer 9

Yes, I have heard this news and it makes a lot of sense!
Not only for hetero but homo sexual. I didn't believe in automatic circumcision of babies, but this new idea of the circumcision of adults makes more sense and we need to reduce the rate of AIDS

Answer 10

How could anybody be opposed to something that will help curb the spread of HIV? Circumcision also helps prevent HPV, one of the main causes of cervical cancer in women. Also, circumcised men do not get penile cancer.