Circumcision protects men from AIDS, puts women at risk

London, Mar 7 Circumcision may reduce men’s chances of contracting HIV by up to 60%—but the procedure could put women at increased risk of infection, according to preliminary data.

Early results announced on Tuesday at a UN consultation in Switzerland on the potential impact of male circumcision on AIDS in Africa showed that if HIV-positive circumcised men did not abstain from sex for about one month after surgery, their female partners might actually have a higher chance of catching HIV.

Previous studies have demonstrated the dramatic impact circumcision has in cutting men’s HIV infection rates, but a big question has been whether there would be a similar effect on women.

The first evidence - though very preliminary—suggests there is a period immediately following the surgery which may allow the virus to more easily infect women.

“This is a very big caveat,” said Jennifer Kates, an AIDS expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Kates was not connected to the study. “But there could still ultimately be a protective effect for women, this just underscores the importance of education,” she said. Researchers at the Rakai Health Sciences Programme and Makerere University in Uganda and the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US tracked 997 HIV positive men and their female partners in Uganda.