Should men be circumcised to help slow the spread of HIV infection? The controversial idea is on the agenda after a study published this week involving over 3000 men in South Africa found that circumcision reduced the rate at which heterosexual men became infected with HIV by about 60 per cent (Public Library of Science Medicine, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020298).
“It won’t make HIV disappear, but it will decrease its amplitude,” says Bertran Auvert of the University of Versailles, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France, who led the trial.
Cells of the foreskin are thought to be more susceptible to HIV infection than cells on…
