Melbourne: A campaign to encourage circumcision among men in sub-Saharan Africa to help protect them against the AIDS virus was backed by new research on Monday showing that men who have had the operation are unlikely to engage in unprotected sex.
Three major trials have previously shown that, for heterosexual men, male circumcision reduces the risk of contracting HIV by as much as 60 per cent — a finding that has prompted the UN’s WHO to recommend it as a voluntary prevention option, to be used along with the condom. But some experts have warned that circumcised men are likely to become more promiscuous and less likely to wear a condom.
The study, coinciding with the 20th Inter-national AIDS Conference, Melbourne, took a long look at this argument yet found no evidence to support it.
University of Illinois questioned more than 3,000 men in Kenya and found that while sexual activity had increased, they were using condoms.
