Is male circumcision as good as the HIV vaccine we’ve been waiting for?

This article from Future Medicine reports on research into the effectiveness of male circumcision (MC) as a means of preventing HIV in Africa. Findings show an average 65 percent reduction in HIV infection as a result of MC, rising to 76 per cent in South Africa where HIV prevalence was highest. MC has also been shown to eliminate or significantly reduce the risk of acquiring or spreading many sexually transmitted infections including syphilis as well as human papilloma virus. Moreover, it is a one-off relatively simple procedure and acceptable throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa. It would also be highly cost-effective in the long term, especially in high HIV prevalence areas, as it would remove the need for large future expenditures on AIDS medications.

The authors conclude that widespread circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa could avert up to 2 million new HIV cases and 300,000 deaths over the next 10 years, and 3.7 million infections and 2.7 million deaths in the following 10 years, many of those among women. They call on UNAIDS and other global organisations to promote and monitor safe MC. They also recommend public education on the protective effect of MC as well as transparency about the potential risks and limitations of the procedure.