Circumcision 'helps to halt HIV'

[Keevan_Colton]

New research suggests circumcision could be effective in preventing the spread of HIV among men.

The study of more than 3,000 men in South Africa was done by the French agency for Aids and Viral Hepatitis.

The data, outlined at a conference in Brazil, shows male circumcision prevented about seven of 10 infections.

UN health agencies have cautioned that more trials are necessary before they will recommend this as a method to protect against Aids.

Previous studies have suggested that men who are circumcised have a lower rate of HIV infection.

It is thought that the cells of the foreskin are much more susceptible to HIV than cells on other parts of the penis, so by removing the foreskin, the likelihood of infection drops.

Further trials are being carried out in Uganda and Kenya to measure the effect of circumcision on other populations.

If similar results are found, then circumcision could be used alongside condoms to prevent the spread of HIV, the BBC's Ania Lichtarowicz reports from the conference in Rio de Janeiro.

But implementing this measure on a large scale will be complicated, our correspondent says.

She says that ensuring safe techniques and changing cultural and social attitudes towards male circumcision will prove challenging.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4719409.stm

[wilfulton]

Gee, I thought simply not probing every hole you come across is a much more effective way of preventing AIDS.

[DPDarkPrimus]

This is so convincing. I'm going to run out and get my dick mutilated right now!

Or MAYBE, I'll just wear a condom and use some common sense.

[CmdrWilkens]

Given where we are talking about anything can help...though obviously education and condom usage would go about 20 million miles further anything will help so meh.

[FSTargetDrone]

Gee, I thought simply not probing every hole you come across is a much more effective way of preventing AIDS.

Absolutely. So are they planning on going out and circumcising adult males, or is this to be limited to infants?

I don't know, it seems to me that condom use is not only far more effective, but it's certainly, cheaper and safer, and that condom use should be encouraged more than circumcisions.

[Elfdart]

One of the main reasons for the spread of AIDS in southern Africa is the use of dirty needles and medical instruments. So what do they think snipping dicks on a large scale is going to do? If they don't have clean needles for immunizing kids (and they use the same old ones over and over), where the fuck are they going to get instruments to do this? Are they going to start knapping flint knives?

Cutting cocks is a poor substitute for public sanitation and personal hygiene.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Seems to me like the way to go would be to get everyone to be Jewish.

[FSTargetDrone]

One of the main reasons for the spread of AIDS in southern Africa is the use of dirty needles and medical instruments. So what do they think snipping dicks on a large scale is going to do? If they don't have clean needles for immunizing kids (and they use the same old ones over and over), where the fuck are they going to get instruments to do this? Are they going to start knapping flint knives?

Cutting cocks is a poor substitute for public sanitation and personal hygiene.

Not only do they need to find surgical instruments and people to use them, but then you have to deal with any complications, and of course any sort of bandaging or follow up than is normally associated with this.

It seems needlessly complicated.

[DPDarkPrimus]

A big cause of AIDS in Africa is ignorance. They believe old wives tales (or old Pope tales) about how condoms don't work, how condoms are INFECTED with AIDS, how having sex with a virgin will cure you of an STD...

[Steven Snyder]

If slicing off part of the penis can reduce the rate of AIDS transmission, then I betcha slicing off the rest of it will reduce it much further.

I seriously question the validity of this study, and I would think it would be prudent to verify those results before we go all willy-nilly and circumcize a few thousand people.

My disputes with the study:

#1 After being circumcized, the men were not able to engage in intercourse until their wounds had healed. This reduced their time to get infected.

#2. It is well known that circumcision reduces pleasure from sex, this leads to the logical conclusion that since sex was less satisfying they my ahve engaged in it less.

#3. Rejection by females could have been a factor, the women could have viewed these men with their mutilated pensis as less sexually appealing than the uncut men.

#4. Protectionism, if the males were told they all of the sudden they may have a surgical resistance to a fatal disease, they may have started taking it seriously and actively avoided sex with women who are known carriers of AIDS.

...and this all fails to mention that it ONLY protects the men, as long as they keep engaging in intercourse with women, they will eventually contract the disease and starting spreading it themselves.
So does it really stop the spread of AIDS, or does it just delay it?

[WyrdNyrd]

Relax, people, no-one is actually recommending circumcision, just that there may be a reduced risk of HIV infection.

Interestingly, circumcision is quite common in South Africa. Hell, my parents believed the cleanliness myth, and thus a chunk of my manhood is floating in the Indian Ocean somewhere...

But far, far more disturbing, is the extremely prevalent pratice of ritual circumcision as a right-of-passage into manhood for several tribes. This is done every year en-masse to boys of about 12/13. And every year, dozens die from infection. Every time the government or the medical fraternity try to intervene, the tribal chiefs throw up a shit-storm, and decry this attempt to destroy their culture and traditions.

Note: No-one's trying to stop the practice, they're just trying to ensure that it is done safely, not in unsanitary conditions, with a blunt knife, by a drunk man.

Anyway, this does create a large population of circumcised men for them to study. And since it's so common here, the idea that these men have less sex because it is repulsive to women, doesn't really fly. A rural black woman would have, in all likelihood, never have had sex with an uncircumcised penis. The other potential explanations that Steven Snyder raised may still apply, though.

[Peregrin Toker]

Relax, people, no-one is actually recommending circumcision, just that there may be a reduced risk of HIV infection.

Interestingly, circumcision is quite common in South Africa. Hell, my parents believed the cleanliness myth, and thus a chunk of my manhood is floating in the Indian Ocean somewhere...

But far, far more disturbing, is the extremely prevalent pratice of ritual circumcision as a right-of-passage into manhood for several tribes. This is done every year en-masse to boys of about 12/13. And every year, dozens die from infection. Every time the government or the medical fraternity try to intervene, the tribal chiefs throw up a shit-storm, and decry this attempt to destroy their culture and traditions.

I thought that there had recently been made a law in South Africa declaring involuntary circumcision a felony? Or am I just mis-remembering an article about a proposed law?

[WyrdNyrd]

I thought that there had recently been made a law in South Africa declaring involuntary circumcision a felony? Or am I just mis-remembering an article about a proposed law?

I haven't heard of that, but anyway, you can argue about whether or not this is involuntary. I'm no expert, but I would imagine that there would be tremendous social pressure on young black men from these tribes to participate. They probably wouldn't be considered "men" until they went through this initiation.

[Erik von Nein]

[tasteless joke] I wonder if female cicumcision does the same?[/tasteless joke]

I can imagine how many people will jump on this saying "SEE?! SEE?! Cicumcision is a good thing! It helps stop HIV! I'm glad I did it to my son!"

[Son of the Suns]

Relax, people, no-one is actually recommending circumcision, just that there may be a reduced risk of HIV infection.

Appearantly they are...

But implementing this measure on a large scale will be complicated, our correspondent says.

She says that ensuring safe techniques and changing cultural and social attitudes towards male circumcision will prove challenging.

[Son of the Suns]

#2. It is well known that circumcision reduces pleasure from sex, this leads to the logical conclusion that since sex was less satisfying they my ahve engaged in it less.

As a circumcised male I call total bullshit. I guarantee you that circumcised and uncircumcised men want the same amount of sex, that amount being all they can get.

[Zero]

I've been told by my only uncircumsized friend that he feels no pleasure on his foreskin. Can anybody actually point to where this well-established fact comes from? I'm just curious.

[18-Till-I-Die]

It may be a myth, a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

You think there should be some great immense please in the foreskin, so you 'feel' like it. But if you've never been circumcised there is no way to tell one way or the other. For all you know, it's the exact same sensation. It's not, exactly, like there is a way to switch back and forth and be sure.

The only way would be to ask someone who was uncircumcised, then had a circumcision.

Just my two cents.

[WyrdNyrd]

Relax, people, no-one is actually recommending circumcision, just that there may be a reduced risk of HIV infection.

Appearantly they are...

But implementing this measure on a large scale will be complicated, our correspondent says.

Oops! My bad. Yup, I tnen agree, this is, indeed, the dumbest idea in the history of all the dumb ideas in all the dumb universes that dumb minds can perceive.

[darthdavid]

I've been told by my only uncircumsized friend that he feels no pleasure on his foreskin. Can anybody actually point to where this well-established fact comes from? I'm just curious.

Well for one, Everyone being different, some people actuall do. Like me . Then there's the fact that it's jam packed with nerves wich a simple disection will confirm.

It may be a myth, a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

You think there should be some great immense please in the foreskin, so you 'feel' like it. But if you've never been circumcised there is no way to tell one way or the other. For all you know, it's the exact same sensation. It's not, exactly, like there is a way to switch back and forth and be sure.

The only way would be to ask someone who was uncircumcised, then had a circumcision.

Just my two cents.

Yeah an experiment might be good. But the problem arises that often times adult circumcisions are for medical reasons which could have caused a person's penis to be less sensitive before the circumcision or could have made it less sensitive than it would normally be leading up to and after the circumcision. Then there's the whole "They say it shouldn't feel as good so it doesn't effect.". The opposite of the one you were talking about. But anyway, I think it's unnessicary in the end. After all, medically speaking the sheer number of nerve endings in that bit of skin point to fact that it should bring pleasure for most people.

[Guardsman Bass]

I've been told by my only uncircumsized friend that he feels no pleasure on his foreskin. Can anybody actually point to where this well-established fact comes from? I'm just curious.

Circumcision cuts off a good chunk of nerves in your penis, reducing sensation.

[Edi]

The only way would be to ask someone who was uncircumcised, then had a circumcision.

Just my two cents.

In this forum, that would be me. And as a matter of fact, the reduction in intensity of pleasure is somewhere around over 50%. And infections in that area are fucking nasty, definitely NOT something you want to experience. Any more questions on the subject?

There are a couple of threads on circumcision on this forum, you might want to do a search and look them up.

Edi

[Joe]

So sex with a helmet on your little major is TWICE as pleasurable as without? Maybe it's a good thing I was circumcised, I'd never put my weiner down.

[Enforcer Talen]

Sign me up, Im getting it regrown.

[ArmorPierce]

The only way would be to ask someone who was uncircumcised, then had a circumcision.

Just my two cents.

In this forum, that would be me. And as a matter of fact, the reduction in intensity of pleasure is somewhere around over 50%. And infections in that area are fucking nasty, definitely NOT something you want to experience. Any more questions on the subject?

There are a couple of threads on circumcision on this forum, you might want to do a search and look them up.

Edi

Is it due to the foreskin being cut off or your head getting calloused? A calloused head can be fixed by wearing a condom so that it isn't constantly rubbing against clothing, or so I've heard.