Data split on benefits of circumcision

From the Washington Blade: "Whether or not circumcision status plays a role in the spread or prevention of STDs is an ongoing topic debated by scientists, with several recent studies coming to dramatically conflicting conclusions. Two separate studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appear to show that circumcision profoundly reduces the risk for heterosexual men in Africa to contract HIV, while having “absolutely no effect” on whether gay and bisexual men in the U.S. contract the disease.

While trying to figure out why black and Latino gay and bisexual men have higher rates of HIV even though they engage in less risky behavior than their white counterparts, CDC researchers looked at data from more than 2,000 black and Latino gay men to see if being uncircumcised increased their probability of being HIV-positive. About 74 percent of black men in the study — which was unveiled at the CDC’s National HIV Prevention conference last month — were circumcised, compared to 33 percent of Latinos.

“We found no overall association between circumcision status and HIV-infection status among black or Latino [gay and bisexual men],” said CDC epidemiologist Greg Millet, the study’s author. “We also found no protective benefit of circumcision among those men reporting recent unprotected sex with a male partner in which they were exclusively the insertive male partner.”

Essentially, men who are sexual tops are not more at risk of contracting HIV if they are uncircumcised, nor are they safer if they are circumcised, Millet said. Circumcision offers gay men a “moderate protective factor, at most,” Millet said." More of