UN Recommends Circumcision to Prevent HIV

The United Nations has endorsed male circumcision as a way to prevent HIV in heterosexual Men. The announcement on Wednesday said that it should be made more easily available in African countries.

Two U.N. agencies, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS, backed recent research that showed that removing the foreskin of the penis can cut men's vulnerability to get the HIV virus that causes AIDS from sex with HIV infected women by more than half.

The U.N. said that countries with high rates of heterosexual HIV should immediately improve access to male circumcision. Priority should be given to sexually active young men in addition to promoting condom use and regular testing.

"These recommendations represent a significant step forward in HIV prevention," said Kevin de Cock, the WHO's director for HIV/AIDS programs.

He pointed tot potential gains in places where male circumcision is rarely practiced.

"Scaling up male circumcision in such countries will result in immediate benefit to individuals. However, it will be a number of years before we can expect to see an impact on the epidemic," he said.

Fourty million people worldwide are infected with HIV, and 25 million of those live in sub-Saharan Africa, where the virus is spread mostly through heterosexual sex.

The U.N. said that increasing male circumcisions could prevent 5.7 sub-Saharan African men from getting the HIV virus over the next two decades. They also say it could save three million lives.

About thirty percent of men worldwide are currently circumcised. The practice is done for religious reasons among Jews and Muslims and for hygienic purposes in other people.

Researchers had noticed that HIV is less prevalent in areas where circumcision is common. Three African studies have recently found that circumcised men are 50 to 60 percent less likely to catch the AIDS virus.

Experts believe that cells on the inside of the foreskin are particularly susceptible to infection by HIV.

There is no evidence that women are protected from HIV when they have sex with circumcised men. If male circumcision results in an overall decrease in HIV, however, it would benefit women in that way.

Studies so far show little benefit from circumcision for men who have homosexual sex.

The U.N. says that it is up to each individual country to decide how to improve their male circumcision access. The U.N. estimates that a circumcision procedure would cost $50 to $100 per person.

Sources:
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-03-28T210701Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-292525-1.xml&archived=False
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2987894