Does circumcision really reduce the risk for HIV/AIDS?

http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/84/7...

Read the article.

I cannot honestly believe that circumcising males will really get a significant increase in HIV/AIDS occurrences. It's hard to believe that many Africans believe circumcision can be perceived as a vaccine for AIDS.

Of course, I can see why it would be..but...

Honey, for every article like this, there are two more that contradict these studies.

http://allafrica.com/stories/20070727087...
http://english.peopledaily.com.cnn/90001/...
http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org/stds.h...

The fact that HIV/AIDS is still rampant in the US (one of the most circumcised countries) proves that circumcision does not reduce the risk. The only way to prevent or reduce the risk of STD's and AIDS is to wear condoms!

No, that's a myth. A lot of pro-circumcision people have been promoting it, because a couple of studies showed a slight decrease in the number of circumcised men who got infected after loads of unprotected sex with a positive woman, compared to uncircumcised men. It was a really, really slight difference though. And another study done in the US (rather than Africa) showed there was no difference. That one is reported on reuters if you want to take a look.

Even if it does provide slight protection, it's really slight. Plenty of circumcised men have HIV. You can get it all sorts of ways, not just by sleeping with a woman. Obviously loads of gay men have it but they didn't factor that in at all, and they didn't look at anal sex with women either I don't think, not to mention people can get it from stuff like intravenous drug use too. The difference is so tiny that circumcised men still need to use a condom and/or be careful who they sleep with. if they keep screwing around with infected girls, they'll end up infected.

Also the reasoning behind it was that the circumcised penis skin was harder and had dried up more. Ew! And circumcised men have less sensitivity so they are less likely to use condoms anyway.

Also, common sense of statistics don't seem to go with this...in some African countries surveyed (Ghana I think) it was found that a higher percentage of circumcised men had HIV than uncircumcised. The USA, where most men are circumcised, has a much higher rate of HIV infection than most other developed countries. If you look up the rates for non-circumcising countries like Japan and Sweden you will see they are much lower.

Oh yes, and you are probably more likely to die/get an infection like MRSA from the circumcison anyway, particularly in Africa.

Aids is passed through bodily fluids, such as blood, so circumcision is not going to make any difference. Studies that suggest there COULD be a link are pretty inconclusive and rely mainly on African men who may not have daily access to modern bathing facilities.

The foreskin actually has antibacterial properties and is there to protect the glans (head). If it is not kept clean, one could have problems, but a cut penis that isn't kept clean will have problems, too. Do you think that if a cut penis isn't washed that it won't have germs?

But AIDS is not a germ; it's a virus. Using circum