Male Circumcision Does Not Offer Protection Against HIV Among U.S. Black, Hispanic MSM, Study Says

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Men's health
Article Date: 06 Dec 2007 - 11:00 PDT

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Male circumcision does not offer any level of protection against HIV among black and Hispanic men who have sex with men in the U.S., researchers said Monday at the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, Reuters reports.

For the study, Greg Millett of CDC and colleagues studied 1,079 black and 957 Hispanic MSM residing in Los Angeles, New York City and Philadelphia. The study participants filled out a computer survey and received an HIV test. According to the study, circumcised black and Hispanic MSM were as likely to become HIV-positive as those who were uncircumcised.

The study also found that circumcision did not offer a protective benefit for a subset of black MSM who recently had sex with female partners or among MSM "reporting recent unprotected sex with a male partner in which they were exclusively the insertive male partner," Millett said. He added, "Overall, we found no association between circumcision status and HIV infection status" among black or Hispanic MSM.

Black and Hispanic men are more likely than white men to be HIV-positive, which could offset any protection circumcision provides, Millett said. In addition, black and Hispanic MSM could be exposed to HIV more often than white MSM because they are more likely to have sex with other black and Hispanic MSM, Reuters reports (Fox, Reuters, 12/4).

Webcasts of the conference will be available online at kaisernetwork.org.

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