by Michael Carter & David McLay for aidsmap
With male circumcision showing effectiveness in reducing female-to-male HIV transmission among African heterosexual men, some are questioning whether the tool might also be effective in other populations affected by HIV, including gay men and other groups of men who have sex with men (MSM).Two contrasting studies examining this issue were presented on July 25th to the 4th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Sydney. The first conducted amongst MSM in South America found that circumcision would be acceptable as a method of HIV prevention. The second, however, found that circumcised and uncircumcised gay men in Sydney, Australia, had the same risk of becoming infected with HIV.
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Jim,
ReplyDeleteI think you have a perspective on this which is influencing how you present the information.
We know there is a huge difference between observational data, and a controlled, randomized trial.
This observational data in Australia suggests that there may be protection for some gay men (insertive partners).
I can show you much more compelling observational data of gay men in the United States which suggests there may be protective value for all gay men.
I'm referring to [ Buchbinder SP et al. Sexual risk, nitrite inhalant use, and lack of circumcision associated with HIV seroconversion in men who have sex with men in the United States. JAIDS 39(1):82-9. 2005. ]
But of course we won't either way until we have a randomized study, so in that regard I feel the title of this post is a little misleading.
better keep putting condoms all over it.
ReplyDelete