Little HIV protection from circumcision for gay sex: study sez

Posted on October 10, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog

Circumcision, which has been found to reduce by about one-half the transmission of HIV between heterosexuals, appears to offer far less protection for men engaging in homosexual intercourse, according to a study released Tuesday.

The research published in the October 8 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association compiled 15 discrete studies of more than 50,000 male subjects in Africa.

The report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that male circumcision appears to reduce by between 50 and 60 percent the likelihood of female-to-male transmission of the potentially deadly AIDS virus.

But among men who report having male sexual partners, researchers found little difference in the rate of HIV infection between those who were circumcised and those who were not. See Little HIV protection from circumcision for gay sex: study AFP