BEIJING,
Dec. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Circumcised adult men may reduce by half their risk of
getting the AIDS virus through heterosexual intercourse, the U.S. government was
quoted as announcing by media reports Friday.
"Male circumcision can lower both an individual's
risk of infection, and hopefully the rate of HIV spread through the community,"
said AIDS expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of
Health's (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Researchers studied about 5,700 HIV-negative men in
Kenya and Uganda for more than two year and found the circumcised men who
became infected with HIV were just 50 percent compared with the
uncircumcised men.
Why would male circumcision play a role? Cells in the
foreskin of the penis are particularly susceptible to the HIV virus, Fauci
explained. Also, the foreskin is more fragile than the tougher skin surrounding
it, providing a surface that the virus could penetrate more easily.
But it's not perfect protection, Fauci stressed. Men
who become circumcised must not quit using condoms nor take other risks -- and
circumcision offers no protection from HIV acquired through anal sex or
injection drug use, he noted.
The link between male circumcision and HIV prevention was noted
as long ago as the late 1980s. The first major clinical trial, of 3,000 men in
South Africa, found last year that circumcision cut the HIV risk by 60
percent. (Agencies)
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