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Circumcision better than any AIDS 'vaccine'
Circumcision may provide even more protection against AIDS than was realized when two clinical trials in Africa were stopped two months ago because the results were so clear, the International Herald Tribune reported on Friday. The trials, in Kenya and Uganda, were stopped early by the National Institute of Health, which was paying for them, because it was apparent that circumcision reduced a mans risk of contracting AIDS from heterosexual sex by about half. It would have been unethical to continue without offering circumcision to all 8,000 men in the trials, federal health officials said.That decision, announced on December 13, made headlines around the world and led the two largest funds for fighting AIDS to say they would consider paying for circumcisions in high-risk countries. But the final data from the trials, to be published on Friday in the British medical journal The Lancet, suggest that circumcision reduces a mans risk by as much as 65 percent.
Re-evaluating the data, excluding a few men whose H.I.V. status was misdiagnosed during the trial and combining the results of three trials those in Uganda and Kenya as well as one in South Africa that was stopped in 2005 when the protective effect became apparent produces a protection rate of about 65 percent. Dr Anthony S Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which paid for the trials, said he planned to keep saying officially that circumcision cuts a mans risk by about half, not by 65 percent, because the validity of clinical trials depends on following randomised groups of patients, not selected ones. But, yes, the 65 percent makes me feel better, he conceded. This is a one-time, permanent intervention thats safe when done under the appropriate medical conditions. If we had an AIDS vaccine that was performing as well as this, it would be the talk of the town, he said. Posted by: Fred 2007-02-24 |
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