February 28, 2011
From CROI 2011: Several years ago, a systematic scale-up of male circumcision arrived in Africa after three large international studies showed the procedure decreased new HIV infections by 70%. This welcome result has led to long-term follow-up, which was needed to further assess the effectiveness of male circumcision at controlling the epidemic.
This extension study followed nearly 5,000 men from one of the earlier studies in Uganda for more than 2 more years. During this time, 4 out of 5 of the uncircumcised men from the original study chose to be circumcised during the extension phase. What resulted was an average 68% fewer infections in this group. As well, of those who were circumcised during the original study, a similar average of 67% fewer infections occurred in those men.
This is good news for efforts at controlling the epidemic in parts of Africa. From this study, male circumcision appears to be at least somewhat acceptable by many men. And despite a self-reported decrease in using condoms by both groups of men, the procedure continues to prevent a high number of new infections.