Обрезание снижает риск передачи вируса СПИДа в 2 раза.
Circumcising Adult Men May Slow the Spread of AIDS (Update3)
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Health officials say they may recommend widespread circumcision of adult men as a way to slow the spread of AIDS, a disease that killed 2 million people in Africa last year.
Positive findings in research results due to be reported next year could lead the World Health Organization to suggest the procedure, said Kevin De Cock, director of the agency's HIV and AIDS programs. Circumcision prevented 6 of 10 potential infections with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among 3,300 men in South Africa, a study found last year.
Common Method
The most common method of circumcision in the U.S. involves pushing the foreskin away from the head of the penis and clamping it with a metal or plastic ring. The foreskin is then snipped off and the remaining skin is stitched back onto the penis. In older boys and adults, it takes up to 10 days to heal.
There are basic biological explanations for how circumcision may help prevent HIV, said WHO's De Cock, who is a physician. One reason is that the cells on the surface of the foreskin are easier for the virus to invade than those on the tip of the penis, he said.
The two studies under way, like the research in South Africa, are testing whether circumcision prevents a man from becoming infected with the virus. A fourth study, which is receiving money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is assessing whether circumcising men who already have HIV helps prevents them from passing it on to their female partners.

An HIV vaccine still remains as much as a decade away and public-health officials are seeking new prevention methods in the meantime, especially for Africa, where 24.5 million people are infected with the virus.