Re: OT: CDC recommends male circumcision as very effective to fight HIV (AIDS)

[Andy Sutton <newslists () pessimists net>]

On Tue, 2009-08-25 at 17:11 -0400, der Mouse wrote:
> (AIDS, actually; it is not a plural.)  Yes, you can.  That's been
> known
> for a long time.  Most of the regimens that protect effectively are
> things, such as sexual abstinence, which are difficult to get large
> populations to engage in enough to matter.

Condom use is by far one of the most practical approaches to stopping
AIDS or any other STD.  The study even recommended that the males
selected for circumcision use abstinence or condoms for six weeks after
the procedure, which could have influenced the results.  Given that pain
and infection aren't something I want associated with my junk, I'd bet
they followed that advice very well. 

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%
2Fjournal.pmed.0020298

On the other side of the coin, women might be more at risk from
contracting AIDS from circumcised males:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8082965?dopt=Abstract


> I find the summary in the Subject: somewhat questionable, though; what
> I've read about the subject has been from parts of Africa where AIDS
> is
> endemic, and has indicated that the protection, while statistically
> significant, is not all that good - certainly not enough to rate "very
> effective".  Perhaps I'm just behind the times, but in view of the
> other indications I find it more likely that this is fruitcake
> reporting, or fruitcake massaging of someone else's reporting, or some
> such.

Better linky?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/health/policy/24circumcision.html?_r=1&hp

I had to recently wade through all the sides on this debate to decide
what was best for my own son.  Both sides of the debate are very vocal,
and it is tough to know what is bias - including internal bias.  In the
end I decided to let him decide.  It's his after all.

-- 
-Andy

Ruinis inminentibus musculi praemigrant
  - Pliny the Elder

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