Posted on 07/05/2005 5:11:03 AM PDT by Paladin2b
In a potentially major breakthrough in the campaign against AIDS, French and South African researchers have apparently found that male circumcision reduces by about 70% the risk that men will contract HIV through intercourse with infected women.
Other than abstinence and safer sex, almost nothing has been proved to reduce the sexual spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. World-wide, the major route of HIV transmission for many years has been heterosexual sex.
Vaccine developers have said they would consider an AIDS vaccine with just 30% efficacy useful. But so far, no effective vaccine against the disease has been developed, leaving AIDS workers desperate for another tool to help them stem the tide of new infections, estimated at almost five million last year.
The circumcision findings were so dramatic that the data and safety monitoring board overseeing the research halted the study in February, about nine months before it would have been completed, on the grounds that it would be immoral to proceed without offering the uncircumcised control group the opportunity to undergo the procedure. While men were directly protected from infection by circumcision, women could benefit indirectly because circumcision would reduce the chances their partners would be HIV-positive.
Researchers in the field have been aware of the study's basic findings, but they haven't been published, so most experts haven't evaluated them. The British medical journal the Lancet decided against publishing the study, but for reasons unrelated to the data and scientific content, according to people familiar with the matter. Lancet officials, following standard policy at the journal, refused to comment on why the study was turned down.
The fact that an independent board ordered the study halted is considered a strong sign that the science is sound...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
And abstinance is 100 percent effective.
That's an important tip!
The 70% probably pertains to not being able to use it during the painful healing process.
It's good this information has been uncovered.
Everytime it is tried, abstinance works! Especially on cutting down unwanted pregnancy!
As soon as O'Connor retired the NOW gang came out marching for Abortion rights.... What is it with the liberals, especially liberal women, demanding the right to kill their unborn children? The only ones I know who think this way are the ones who already had abortions, and so are unable to have children now, due to damage done to them during abortions. Maybe they are just bitter.
Seems like a better strategy to me, personally.
Good thing I'm circumcized.
There are lots of anti circumcision people here on FR. I can't wait to see what they have to say about this. There was actually one man who claimed circumcision caused men to be gay.lol
You're awful..... awfully FUNNY!
That is very possible. Or the little head that got him into this may just fall off.
Looks to me like we've found the cure.
I just don't understand the libs stance on abortion. I've tried for 3 decades and I still don't it. I've heard all the arguments. I've heard the emotional responses. I still don't get it.
The one thing that does stay in my head is eugenics. Race cleansing via abortion. I've read some books from the 1930's on the subject. Oddly the founding of the modern abortion movement occured at the same time. I think at this point though it's be forged into an irrational rights issue. History is not kind to those that support these kinds of activities.
I remember reading this finding several years ago. It wasn't from a controlled study, but rather from detailed study of HIV infection by geographical distribution, correlated with tribal practices and other factors. The tribes that circumcised had much lower rates of infection. It seems the penile membranes in those that aren't circumcised are larger in surface area, moist and porous to the virus, making infection more likely. I wonder if this controlled study is an offshoot of the previous one?
I always suspected the practice of anal sex in Africa might be causal too. Many times in Africa anal sex is used to preserve the virginity of young women and for birth control. We know from homosexuals that anal sex has a much higher transmission rate than heterosexual sex.
Circumcision.....no fornication.....hhhhhmmmm.....seems to me I've read about those things somewhere.....
bookmark
These studies emerged on other net sources in the mid-90s. The hysteria and hot air against even DISCUSSING this matter of circumcision and AIDS reduction -- was.. unbelievable. People getting locked out of forums, censored.. in the 90s, over simply discussing this issue. And yes, the Lancet refused to even address the issue -- some in medical circuits were referring to the study as an "politically motivated anti-homosexuality" study and agenda. (Beware the activist anti-circers. There is no common sense allowed in discussing the "how many angels can dance on the tip of a penis" matters with 'em.)
Hey looks like I could makes some money...renting out my cigar cutter!
Then there were the "self-help" groups which started up in the SF Bay Area. This included.. hanging tomes with clips to the "tip" in order to.. uh.. grow a flap. There is (or was) a clinic in the SF area which performs surgery to "replace" one's foreskin.
Most anti-circers' posture circumcision as akin (identical) to ...GENDER MUTILATION.
Uck. I'm already sorry I popped into this thread.
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