Circumcision and AIDS

I didn't wake up this morning intending to make AIDS topic of the day on this blog, but the Wall Street Journal had an article which caught my interest. It seems there is a study just completed by French and South African researchers which clearly shows that male circumcision reduces the risk of AIDS by about 70%. This, of course, reduces the risk in women since their partners would be less likely to be infected. I won't comment on the scientific study itself, even though the approach they took seems valid, but it is interesting to consider what use is or can be made of this information. One problem is circumcision does not make one immune to AIDS so implementation must be accompanied by intensive counseling which would boil down to convincing an adult African man to undergo an alteration of his manhood which would not protect him absolutely. If the education is not completely successful, HIV transmission could actually increase by behavior based on the mistaken belief the operation conferred protection. Another problem is the chance the operation could be performed under less than sanitary conditions which could lead to complications which might set the program back considerably once word gets out. A final problem is that some tribes in Africa practice circumcision and others do not for cultural reasons. So, in order to implement the results of the research, the targets would not be easily convinced to participate. Put me down in the skeptical column. If you can'tconvince them to use condoms, circumcision seems to be a long-shot remedy to AIDS in Africa.