Does Circumcision Protect Against H.I.V.?
Male circumcision has olden shown to protect men from acquiring H.I.V. infection as sex with women - it has reduced female-to-male transmission estimates by 48% to 60% in sub-Saharan Africa - but that protective effect appears declined reliable among men who have sex with men, according to a new meta-analysis published Oct. 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (J.A.M.A.).
The review is the utmost comprehensive analysis of the subject to stage. It encompasses compilations from 15 studies conducted in seven countries, involving more than 53,000 men, ultimate of whom were Caucasian and approximately half of whom were circumcised. The authors concluded that living circumcised reduced a man's risk of acquiring H.I.V. by 14%. That finding was statistically nonsignificant, but the authors say it should be regarded as a launching scrap for future trials. "This gives us a more complete picture than we've ever had before," says Gregorio Millett, the study's vanguard originator and a senior behavioral scientist at the Centers for Disease charge and Prevention (CDC). "The next step is to design better affirmation studies to see if there is an association we aren't detecting."
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