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Study Says Circumcision Reduces AIDS Risk by 70%
The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 5, 2005 | MARK SCHOOFS, SARAH LUECK and MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; aids; anticirc; circumcision; junkscience; lancet
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This is going to be fun to watch the squirming among some AIDS activists. Homosexual agenda types are very heavily involved in the anti-circumcision movement, and it will be interesting to see if the desire to cut AIDS rates trumps other considerations. When you consider what Andrew Sullivan has said on the subject of circumcision (he thinks it's worse than the Holocaust), it's possible an HIV-positive guy like him will have his head explode upon reading this.
1 posted on 07/05/2005 5:11:06 AM PDT by Paladin2b
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To: Paladin2b

And abstinance is 100 percent effective.


2 posted on 07/05/2005 5:14:14 AM PDT by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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To: Paladin2b

That's an important tip!


3 posted on 07/05/2005 5:14:54 AM PDT by ko_kyi
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To: Paladin2b

The 70% probably pertains to not being able to use it during the painful healing process.


4 posted on 07/05/2005 5:16:08 AM PDT by Solamente
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To: Paladin2b

It's good this information has been uncovered.


5 posted on 07/05/2005 5:18:06 AM PDT by bk1000 (A clear conscience is a sure sign of a poor memory)
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To: Joe Boucher

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.


6 posted on 07/05/2005 5:19:27 AM PDT by buffyt ("If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?" Ben Franklin)
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To: Paladin2b
Studies also say (or should say) that not having sex with those who have AIDS reduces AIDS risk by 99%.

Seems like a better strategy to me, personally.

7 posted on 07/05/2005 5:20:37 AM PDT by SunnyD1182
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To: buffyt
I've decided to abstain from abstinence and boycott celibacy.

Good thing I'm circumcized.

8 posted on 07/05/2005 5:21:53 AM PDT by Bon mots
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To: Paladin2b


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


9 posted on 07/05/2005 5:22:50 AM PDT by SouthernFreebird
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To: ko_kyi

You're awful..... awfully FUNNY!


10 posted on 07/05/2005 5:24:51 AM PDT by DarkSavant (I touch myself at thoughts of flames)
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To: Paladin2b
When you consider what Andrew Sullivan has said on the subject of circumcision (he thinks it's worse than the Holocaust), it's possible an HIV-positive guy like him will have his head explode upon reading this.

That is very possible. Or the little head that got him into this may just fall off.

11 posted on 07/05/2005 5:25:09 AM PDT by badpacifist (American media...Petty is their nature , tragic their effect.)
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To: Paladin2b
Other than abstinence and safer sex, almost nothing has been proved to reduce the sexual spread of HIV

Looks to me like we've found the cure.

12 posted on 07/05/2005 5:26:51 AM PDT by HIDEK6
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To: buffyt

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.


13 posted on 07/05/2005 5:27:39 AM PDT by Dutch Boy
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To: Joe Boucher
Over the past 11 years I have had over 1000 sexual encounters and my risk factor is zero, nada, nothing, nor did I practice safe sex!

Did I mention I live in a monogamous relationship with my wife?
Works ever time. :)
14 posted on 07/05/2005 5:28:12 AM PDT by cpdiii (Oil Field Trash, Rough Neck, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist, Iconoclast (Oil Field Trash was FUN))
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To: Paladin2b

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.


15 posted on 07/05/2005 5:28:52 AM PDT by zipper (Common sense ain't common. --- Will Rogers)
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To: Paladin2b

Circumcision.....no fornication.....hhhhhmmmm.....seems to me I've read about those things somewhere.....


16 posted on 07/05/2005 5:43:49 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun
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To: Paladin2b

bookmark


17 posted on 07/05/2005 5:57:29 AM PDT by Alia
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To: Paladin2b

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.)


18 posted on 07/05/2005 6:01:13 AM PDT by Alia
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To: badpacifist

Hey looks like I could makes some money...renting out my cigar cutter!


19 posted on 07/05/2005 6:01:25 AM PDT by mdmathis6 (Even when a dog discovers he is barking up a wrong tree, he can still take a leak on it!)
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To: SouthernFreebird
oh no.. that cannot top some of the debates I was in.. in the mid-90s. Pro-anti-circers.. writing in public post..."I WANT MY FORESKIN BACK!" If they weren't blaming Jews, then they were blaming the "medical" industry, then they were blaming their parents for having circ'd them. All of 'em looking for "deep pockets".

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.

20 posted on 07/05/2005 6:07:28 AM PDT by Alia
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