Studies Find Adult Male Circumcision Can Cut HIV Risk

Circumcising adult men may cut in half their risk of getting the AIDS
virus through heterosexual intercourse, the U.S. government announced
Wednesday, as it shut down two studies in Africa testing the link. The
National Institutes of Health closed the studies in Kenya and Uganda
early, when safety monitors took a look at initial results this week
and spotted the protection. The studies' uncircumcised men are being
offered the chance to undergo the procedure. 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.
Still, many AIDS specialists had been awaiting the NIH's results as a
final confirmation. "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 NIH's
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 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