Circumcision Benefit In AIDS Is Divided

By REUTERS
WASHINGTON , 08 oct 2008— There is not enough evidence to show that circumcision reduces the risk of AIDS in sex between men, researchers are reporting, even though previous studies in Africa have shown its pronounced benefit in reducing AIDS from heterosexual sex.
“Over all, we’re not finding a protective effect associated with circumcision for gay and bisexual men,” said Gregorio A. Millett of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the lead author of a report that appears Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers based their conclusions on a review of 15 studies involving 53,567 gay and bisexual men in eight countries, including the United States, where nearly half of the 1.1 million people infected with the AIDS virus are men who have sex with men.
Circumcised men were 14 percent less likely to be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or H.I.V., than those who were uncircumcised, but the finding was not statistically significant, the researchers said.