WHO to Examine Circumcision Recommendations in AIDS Fight

At a World Health Organization-organized meeting next week in Switzerland, an international group of scientists will meet to study possible recommendations regarding male circumcision as a way to reduce the risk of HIV infection. The results of two large trials in Africa, published recently in The Lancet, indicate that uncircumcised men were twice as likely to contract HIV as were circumcised men. An earlier trial in South Africa also had promising results. "It is very important for the experts to all meet in the same place to examine these three studies and to see whether or not there are recommendations to be made," said Fadela Chaib, a WHO spokesperson. "It raises not only health question, but also ethical, economic ones and the possibility of changes in health policy." However, she added that a formal WHO statement on the matter might not immediately follow the meeting.

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