August 7, 2008
BULLETIN
Adult Male Circumcision Reduces Risk of HIV Acquisition for at Least 3.5 Years
Medical circumcision of adult men continues to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual intercourse for at least 3.5 years. This finding recently emerged from an analysis of long-term follow-up data on Kenyan men who have participated in a large clinical trial assessing the protective value of adult male circumcision against HIV infection.
Among the 2,784 Kenyan men who have participated in the study, some for as long as 3.5 years, 62, or 7.45 percent, have acquired HIV while uncircumcised and only 27, or 2.6 percent, have acquired HIV after circumcision. Nearly 1,830 of the study participants are now circumcised. It is estimated from the study data that circumcision reduces a man’s risk of acquiring HIV by 64 percent. The investigators will present these data on August 7 at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.
The Kenyan study is a follow-up component of one of two clinical trials sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that were stopped in December 2006—before their scheduled completion—because of the overwhelming evidence that medically supervised circumcision can reduce a man’s risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual intercourse. The trial in Kisumu, Kenya, of 2,784 HIV-negative men showed a 53 percent reduction in HIV acquisition among circumcised men compared to uncircumcised men, while a study of 4,996 HIV-negative men in Rakai, Uganda, demonstrated a 48 percent reduction in HIV acquisition among circumcised men. NIAID is co-sponsoring the follow-up Kenyan study in connection with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
In response to the results of these studies and an earlier randomized trial conducted in Orange Farm, South Africa, the World Health Organization recommended in 2007 that male circumcision be recognized as an additional important intervention to reduce the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men.
Media inquiries can be directed to the NIAID Office of Communications at 301-402-1663, niaidnews@niaid.nih.gov.
NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health. NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and illness from potential agents of bioterrorism. NIAID also supports research on basic immunology, transplantation and immune-related disorders, including autoimmune diseases, asthma and allergies.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—The Nation's Medical Research Agency—includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov
###
back to top