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NIH says circumcision a way to stop HIV

Infection Control Monitor, December 15, 2006

Circumcising adult men is an effective way to limit transmission of HIV that causes AIDS, says the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The NIH announced December 13 that two clinical trials in Africa have been stopped because an independent monitoring board determined the treatment was so effective it would be unethical to continue the experiment, reported NBC News.

The clinical trials demonstrated that medically performed circumcision can significantly lower the risk of adult males contracting HIV through heterosexual intercourse, Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, told NBC News.

NIH sponsored two trials—one in Uganda and one in Kenya--where half the men voluntarily underwent circumcision. The studies found that the circumcised men in the Kenyan study were 48% less likely to get infected and 53% less likely in the Ugandan study.

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