Male Circumcision as the Answer to the African AIDS Epidemic?
Male Circumcision as the Answer to the African AIDS Epidemic?
July 10, 2000 (Durban, South Africa) -- Male circumcision -- for generations a standard operation for the vast majority of men in America -- is now being considered as a way to combat AIDS in Africa, the epicenter of the worldwide epidemic.
About 25 million Africans have AIDS or are infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, and many of those men with the disease live in areas of Africa where circumcision is not performed regularly.
"Circumcision was once very common in Botswana," said Daniel Halperin, PhD. But missionaries discredited the practice, he said, and now few men in Botswana are circumcised -- and more than 30% of the adult population in that country has AIDS or is infected with HIV. Halperin is assistant professor of medical anthropology and HIV/STD Prevention at the University of California, San Francisco's AIDS Research Insitute.
During a symposium at the 13th International AIDS Conference here, researchers examined new research on male circumcision in Africa. Halperin asked during the session: "If you had a one-time intervention that could reduce the risk of becoming infected by more than 50%, wouldn't it be worth using that as an intervention?"
Other researchers said that dozens of studies on male circumcision indicated that the procedure, in which the foreskin of the penis is surgically removed, might be capable of reducing the risk of contracting the disease by as much as 57%. Robert Bailey, PhD, of the University of Illinois School of Public Health in Chicago, found that interestingly, circumcision was generally well accepted by men as well as women -- even in areas of Africa where it wasn't practiced.
However, there also were reports that raised the question of whether circumcision provided a biological safety net against HIV infection or if the reduced rate of infection among circumcised men was due to their cultural and religious activities.
Halperin said it could be argued that male circumcision -- especially in Western Africa -- already had protected more than eight million men from contracting the disease. "And if men aren't infected then woman are not infected by those men either," he added.
Male Circumcision as the Answer to the African AIDS Epidemic?
July 10, 2000 (Durban, South Africa) -- Male circumcision -- for generations a standard operation for the vast majority of men in America -- is now being considered as a way to combat AIDS in Africa, the epicenter of the worldwide epidemic.
About 25 million Africans have AIDS or are infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, and many of those men with the disease live in areas of Africa where circumcision is not performed regularly.
"Circumcision was once very common in Botswana," said Daniel Halperin, PhD. But missionaries discredited the practice, he said, and now few men in Botswana are circumcised -- and more than 30% of the adult population in that country has AIDS or is infected with HIV. Halperin is assistant professor of medical anthropology and HIV/STD Prevention at the University of California, San Francisco's AIDS Research Insitute.
During a symposium at the 13th International AIDS Conference here, researchers examined new research on male circumcision in Africa. Halperin asked during the session: "If you had a one-time intervention that could reduce the risk of becoming infected by more than 50%, wouldn't it be worth using that as an intervention?"
Other researchers said that dozens of studies on male circumcision indicated that the procedure, in which the foreskin of the penis is surgically removed, might be capable of reducing the risk of contracting the disease by as much as 57%. Robert Bailey, PhD, of the University of Illinois School of Public Health in Chicago, found that interestingly, circumcision was generally well accepted by men as well as women -- even in areas of Africa where it wasn't practiced.
However, there also were reports that raised the question of whether circumcision provided a biological safety net against HIV infection or if the reduced rate of infection among circumcised men was due to their cultural and religious activities.
Halperin said it could be argued that male circumcision -- especially in Western Africa -- already had protected more than eight million men from contracting the disease. "And if men aren't infected then woman are not infected by those men either," he added.
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