The Impact of Male Circumcision on HIV Transmission
Received 2 January 2009 published online 13 November 2009.
Purpose
Adult male circumcision is currently being implemented as an HIV prevention strategy worldwide. We reviewed the literature on adult male circumcision in the prevention of HIV.
Materials and Methods
A MEDLINE® search was used to identify current literature addressing HIV and male circumcision. The data from that literature were reviewed and summarized.
Results
Three randomized, controlled trials demonstrate that circumcising adult males reduces the incidence of HIV by 50% to 60%. Adult male circumcision does not seem to have an adverse impact on sexual function. Epidemiological and economic modeling suggests that adult male circumcision can potentially be a highly cost-effective strategy for HIV prevention.
Conclusions
Safe, high quality, low cost adult male circumcision services should be made available to regions with a high HIV incidence as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention package.
aDepartment of Urology, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
bDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
cUCSF/Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
dSchool of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
Correspondence: Department of Urology, University of California, San Francisco, Box 1695, San Francisco, California 94143-1695 (telephone: 415-353-7098; FAX: 415-353-9932)
Editor's Note: This article is the first of 5 published in this issue for which category 1 CME credits can be earned. Instructions for obtaining credits are given with the questions on pages 404 and 405.
‡ Financial interest and/or other relationship with the National Institutes of Health, Blue Wolf Communications, Varian Medical Systems and AstraZeneca.
ABSTRACT