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The impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa has forced researchers to ignore realities in other regions, including Latin America, activists said at the end of the 3rd International AIDS Conference in Brazil this week.
According to the International Community of Women Living With HIV/AIDS (ICW), a prime example was the impact on conference delegates by recent research that recommended male circumcision as a means of preventing HIV infection.
The study, conducted by French researchers between 2002 and 2005 on more than 3,000 South African men, found that circumcised men were 65 percent less likely to contract HIV.
However, ICW's Dalva Pereira Lopes argued that the effectiveness of this measure was not adequately confirmed.
She told IPS that the observation period was very short, and the lower rate of infection among circumcised men could have been the result of a period of sexual abstinence and greater preventive efforts following the surgery.
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