Money Matters, Simplified.
Circumcision does not cut transmission of HIV to women
by Neka Sehgal - July 17, 2009 - comments
A new study states that circumcision does not prevent men from passing the virus on to their female partners once they have acquired HIV.
Baltimore, Mary land, July 16: Although male circumcision remains a potent weapon against the spread of HIV, the big question looming is whether it could also reduce the risk for women who have intercourse with an HIV-infected man.
The results of a trail in Rakai, Uganda disappointed the researchers since they contradicted previous studies which suggested that partners of circumcised HIV-positive men had a lower risk of getting infected than women whose infected partners were not circumcised.
The study conducted
Maria Wawer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, looked at 922 uncircumcised, HIV-infected men between the ages of 15 and 49 who did not exhibit any symptoms.
Half of the group then had circumcision. The other half remained uncircumcised for two years.
The researchers also enrolled females not infected with HIV as partners of the male subjects. There were 90 women in the circumcised group, and 70 in the uncircumcised groups.
The couples were counseled about safe sexual practices and HIV prevention.
The scientists then examined the women for HIV infection at six, 12 and 24 months.
Observations by researchers
The trial was halted because the investigators found the early data of the procedure did not help stop the spread of the virus.
Researchers observed that 18 percent of the women became infected with the virus by their circumcised partners as opposed to 12 percent of the women who had physical relations with uncircumcised partners for two years.
Most of the infections in the circumcised group occurred within six months after circumcision.
This was perhaps because some of the men were physically intimate without waiting for the circumcision wound to heal properly thereby exposing the woman to infection.
Wawer stated, "As long as couples abstained from sex until full wound healing which is about six weeks then we didn't see any increased risk. We didn't see decreased risk but we didn't see increased risk."
The researchers concluded, “Circumcision of HIV-infected men didn’t reduce HIV transmission to female partners over 24 months; longer-term effects could not be assessed. Condom use after male circumcision is essential for HIV prevention.”
Benefits of circumcision
The researchers reflect that even though the study shows that circumcision offers no benefit to the female partners of men infected with HIV, the results should not deter programs to promote male circumcision as a cheap, effective method of preventing HIV among men.
The scientists said, “Wherever possible, male circumcision should be offered in conjunction with HIV counseling services, condoms, and education on HIV prevention for men and women, to improve the health and safety of circumcised patients and their partners.”
The results of the study are published this week in the journal The Lancet.