HIV and other health benefits of male

M any studies have been published
over the past decades in leading
peer reviewed journals documenting the
various HIV and other health benefits
of male circumcision, yet in some
quarters it remains a highly controversial
topic. In the past, churches and other
religious institutions contributed to the
demise of traditional initiation rites in
Africa, which typically included male
circumcision. Faith-based organizations
could now play a more positive and
important role in addressing the AIDS
pandemic, for example by helping to
make safe and affordable male
circumcision services (e.g. at mission
hospitals) more widely available.
Clinical trial of male circumcision
finds a strong protective effect
Much of the recent surge of interest in
this topic stems from publication of the
first randomized controlled trial of
circumcision among adult men, in
Orange Farm, South Africa, which found
a 60-75% reduced risk of HIV among
those who were circumcised6 , consistent
with findings from many other
epidemiological studies over the past two
decades7 . As news of this study has
begun to spread, both internationally and
in the southern and east Africa region
in particular, male circumcision has
increasingly caught the attention of HIV
and other health professionals, as well
as public opinion8 . A recent modelling
study by WHO, UNAIDS and several
European and United States universities
estimates that, based on the Orange
Farm findings, circumcision could avert
about 2 million new HIV infections and
300 000 million deaths over the next
10 years in Sub-Saharan Africa, with
a further 3.7 million new HIV infections
and 2.7 million deaths averted in the
10 years thereafter9 .