Male circumcision a `surgical vaccine'
The global fight against HIV/AIDS has found a powerful if unfashionable ally in male circumcision.
Research into the spread of the virus in Africa has revealed a reduced rate of transmission in those regions where male circumcision is the norm.
The practise rooted in religion and culture was increasingly seen as a "surgical vaccine" against HIV and must be part of efforts to curb the virus' spread, says harm minimisation advocate Dr Alex Wodak in a co-authored paper.
"A wealth of research has shown that the foreskin is the entry point that allows HIV to infect men during intercourse with an infected female partner," Dr Wodak said.
"Soon after the HIV pandemic was first recognised, much lower HIV prevalence was found in areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 80 per cent of males had been circumcised than in areas where the circumcision rate was less than 20 per cent.
"Circumcision of males is now referred to by many as surgical vaccine against a wide variety of infections and adverse medical conditions over the lifetime."
Dr Wodak said Medicare statistics show the percentage of Australian boys circumcised annually from 1998 to 2009 increased, from 13 per cent to 19 per cent, and this was despite "official discouragement".
He said Australia should have a policy of promoting infant male circumcision, domestically and across the region, in the face of rising heterosexual transmissions of HIV.
Male circumcision offered a protective effect for men during sex with a HIV positive female partner.
It did not, however, alter the risk of transmission of the virus during sex between men.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says there is "compelling evidence that male circumcision reduces the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men by approximately 60 per cent".
"The prospect of the availability of a (HIV) vaccine over the next 20 years is unlikely," Dr Wodak said.
"Condom use remains essential, with promotion of condom use plus circumcision of males being analogous to seatbelts plus airbags for reducing the road toll."
Dr Wodak, director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, co-wrote the paper along with Professor David Cooper, director of the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, and Professor Brian Morris, Professor of Molecular Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney.
The paper is published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Link here:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking- ... 20100919-15hm3.html

[ Last edited by  atomic3d at 19-9-2010 20:40 ]

Circumcision appears to offer a degree of protection against HIV transmission from female to male during intercourse, which is good news for the bros who are circumcised ("extra" protection). However, using a condom dramatically reduces this risk, and I for one will never go BBFS except with my wife!

You're overlooking a couple of things, firstly there's always the possibility that your wife is seeing someone on the side and that they're not using protection exposing you to risk. Secondly if you have or are intending to have kids perhaps you should make sure that any of your male offspring are circumcised, they may never find a cure and your sons may not be as careful as you.

I think we're all aware that condoms are the way to go, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep abreast of the latest findings.

i doubt males will now get circumcised because of this new research which by the way is not so new.  even for those circumcised it is better to always practice safer sexand that is with condom. so at the end it makes little difference apart from reducingthe chances of contracting hiv if the condom breaks

when I got the circumcision (without my consent obviously), i'm also sure it wasn't in our parents mind to prevent against HIV.. but at least this helps for the next generation.

i find it difficult to think that a grown male would volunteer to get circumsized...

dbg00 - What's new is the growing body of statistical evidence that shows circumcision reduces the chances of HIV. Up till now many scientists would have regarded any link as being anecdotal at best and may be now moving into the pro-circumcision camp.

rockypop - Don't know your situation, but here in oz circumcision was at one time practically mandatory, it was regarded as a hygiene issue. Also fathers would want their sons not to be teased in school locker rooms because they hadn't had the snip.

I can think of a couple of situations where a grown man would want to get circumcised,a late conversion to Judaism for example. If I was living in Africa with limited access to condoms and people where dropping like flies around me, I would be tempted when the free circumcision van rolled into town. But your right in that it probably will never be a popular procedure. Mind you I never thought tatoos and piercings would become as popular as they have become.

next they will be telling us to cut our dicks off then we'd have even more protection......

I'll take keeping my schlong how i was born with it and practicing safe sex.

Absolutely right

My reaction to a "60% reduction" in infection rates is a big big yawn ... is anyone going to go out and get circumcised instead of using a condom?? Duh

celebrating anything less than the protection given by a condom smacks of a researcher trying to prove he's done something useful with his grant.

I have to disagree, I think 60% is a big number and while I'm not saying that a grown man in a developed country is likely to get circumcised based simply on this discovery. I do know that if I was about to become a father I would want the procedure performed. How many of us here have not done some pretty stupid unsafe stuff when we were younger.

thanks for the insight, I forgot about the conversion to Judaism..

seems like the days of the Church must have figured it was healthy for whatever reason, seems to have paid off from the strings of posts here.

60% is 60% and it is large.

But what does that take the risk to when using a condom?

I'm not saying you shouldn't consider all precautions ... it's your choice and your life ... but I'm looking at it this way:-

Suppose the infection rate from + to - for HIV is 10% (it's hard to find the actual number) ... and by getting circumcised you reduce that to a 4%transmission rate.  Yeah!  Great!  But it's still a 4% transmission rate, and you can still get infected by the first encounter.  

So suppose (for the sake of illustration) we forcibly circumcised the world's entire population of men (ouch ) it would still not prevent transmission of HIV, just slow it down, to a little more than half speed.  

It's not a cure, and is only meaningful in an uniformed and promiscuous community where condoms are not available or not used.  And even then it is only meaningful as a delaying tactic.

Any delaying tactic is good. It gives more time for the medical profession to come up with a vaccine or cure.
Of course its best if we all use condoms, but you know some people just wont/cant.
Maybe best way to sum it up is....better than nothing.

maybe it makes a case for mandatory circumcision in certain parts of Africa where things are out of control

I think there's a case to be made for education on the link between circumcision and lower rates of infection combined with free circumcision, particularly for newborns, but mandatory circumcision would be going too far.

I think circumcision is a bit of a sensitive topic for the non-circumcised.  Anyone who had a circumcision when they were a baby thinks it's perfectly normal, and there's a lot of evidence from the States saying how hygienic it is.

But for those of us who are not circumcised... well for me at least, the very thought of someone attacking my little bro with a knife scares the shit out of me.

Maybe it shouldn't, but the idea of circumcision,as an adult uncircumcised man, makes my little bro hide away.  I mean I was just looking through the AV section, little bro was in his underwear, but he certainly wanted to come out... now he's just hiding.  

And he's not normally a shrinking violet.

Maybe one day I'll overcome my fears and get it done... but I've heard that adult circumcision can be quite disturbing.

Has anyone here been circumcised as an adult?

Back to Africa though... whether or not circumcision reduces transmission shouldn't detract from the fact that many men on the African continent engage in unsafe sex.  This is something that has to change, and condoms are the single-most effective way to reduce transmission of STDs.  It's shameful that in such a high-risk environment that many men in Africa endanger themselves and their partners by not taking precautions.  

The problem is though, if you tell them that circumcision is like a surgical vaccine against AIDS, a large proportion of circumcised men in Africa will start to think... 'great, now I don't need to wear a condom', and the problem could get worse.  Condoms are key

[ Last edited by  princeandnpg at 22-9-2010 16:42 ]

Not had it done myself, but a cousin of mine had his done when he was 20. He had it done under local anaesthetic and actually sat up and asked the Doc if he could watch the procedure, to which the Doc said yes. My cousin said the whole procedure took about 10 mins and the Doc used a pair or scissors not a scalpel. I think he said the injections into his penis hurt more than the healing.

Sounds like a masochist. Why did he choose to have the procedure and why did he wait till he was 20.

He lives in Malaysia and most of his friends had it done and were pressurising him to do it.
They were saying things like "it makes your dick head look bigger", "girls love the feel of a smooth dick", "can last for a lot longer", "can fuck faster" etc

So he did.

Like you do....

S.Africa to circumcise inmates to stop HIV
October 29, 2010 - 9:59PM
               
AFP
Health authorities in South Africa's eastern province plan to circumcise inmates in a bid to fight the spread of HIV infections within prisons, media reported on Friday.
Health officials in KwaZulu Natal, one of the regions worst affected by the scourge of AIDS, want to circumcise 2.5 million prisoners by June 2014.
The head of health in the region Sibongiseni Dhlomo said 148 prisoners had already been circumcised in one jail, SAPA news agency said.
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Circumcision is thought to protect against the transmission of HIV and last year, Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini revived the forgotten tradition of male circumcision among the Zulus.
The procedure is done clinically at hospitals, unlike traditional methods used by tribes in some parts of the country, usually done by ill-trained traditional surgeons.
Every year hundreds of young boys die from botched circumcisions or survive with mutilated genitals.
Dhlomo said religious leaders would also be encouraged to be circumcised, so that they can tell their congregants to do the same.
South Africa has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the world, with an estimated 5.7 million of the 48 million population living with the virus.
© 2010 AFP
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking- ... 20101029-177ml.html