Citing a recent Soweto-based survey that found circumcised men 65 percent less likely to contract HIV, a South African AIDS expert on Saturday called the procedure the best "vaccine" available against the virus.

"We dream of a vaccine which has this efficacy," Francois Venter, clinical director of Reproductive Health and HIV Research at University of Witwatersrand, told a Cape Town meeting of Treatment Action Campaign activists. TAC should consider promoting circumcision, said Venter, given that existing methods are failing to slow the epidemic.

Between 2002 and 2004, French researchers conducted a controlled medical circumcision study of more than 3,000 healthy, sexually active Soweto males ages 18-24. About half were circumcised by medical professionals; the rest remained uncircumcised. All the men received HIV prevention counseling. After 21 months, 51 uncircumcised men had contracted HIV, while only 18 circumcised men did so.

Some traditional South African communities perform male circumcision; however, advocates are calling for the operation to be performed as a less-risky, regulated medical procedure. "We don't want our men to go to the chop shop but have medical circumcision," said Zackie Achmat, a prominent TAC member who said the group would debate whether to encourage the procedure.

The World Health Organization and UNAIDS said more trials should be conducted before circumcision can be recommended as an HIV preventative.

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