It's pretty well known that circumcision, when coupled with safe sex, significantly reduces the rate of HIV transmission in heterosexual men. A new study, however, states that circumcision also helps prevent two other sexually transmitted infections, namely human papillomavirus (HPV) and herpes. "Circumcised males reduced their risk of infection with HPV, or human papillomavirus, by 35 percent and herpes by 28 percent," according to the associated press.
Previous studies conducted in three African countries showed that circumcision reduced a hetereosexual man's rate of transmission of HIV by 60%, but new studies which will be published in tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine, provide ample evidence that a man's risk of both HPV and herpes were reduced by 1/3 if he was circumcised.
The American Academy of Pediatrics used to say that there was not enough evidence to mandate circumcision in infants. While researchers are not entirely sure what it is about the foreskin that so dramatically alters statistics, the new studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation, give the Academy cause to rethink their position.
L'chaim!
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