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IAS hears of circumcision and AIDS prevention link

    JOHANNESBURG

    Circumcision could help protect men against HIV infection, the International AIDS Society (IAS) conference in Brazil has heard.

    According to Bertrand Auvert of France's National Agency for AIDS Research, a study monitoring 3,000 African men between 2002 and 2005 found that circumcised men were 65 percent less likely to contract HIV.

    Agence France-Presse quoted Auvert as saying, "The prevalence of HIV is lower among populations who traditionally practice circumcision, compared to those in Africa as well as in Southeast Asia where the majority of men are not circumcised."

    The research suggests that uncircumcised males are more likely to transmit HIV because the foreskin permits a moist environment that favours the survival and reproduction of the HI virus.

    However, UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation warned that the results were not conclusive and called for more research into circumcision as an effective method of HIV prevention.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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