Many studies have shown that circumcision helps men prevent infection with HIV virus. Apparently the same medical procedures also reduces a man’s chance of getting two other diseases, namely genital herpes and human papillomavirus virus (the virus that can cause cervical cancer and genital warts), a new study reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The results come from a study in Uganda involving 3,400 men negative for HSV-2, the genital herpes virus. The study was conducted by Johns Hopkins researcher Aaron A.R. Tobian, MD, PhD, and colleagues and lasted for two years.
 
The participants were randomly assigned to undergo circumcision or not. At the end of the follow-up period, circumcised heterosexual men are 35% less likely to contract human papillomavirus (HPV) and 25% less likely to catch herpes than their uncircumcised counterparts.
 
“These findings ... indicate that circumcision should now be accepted as an efficacious intervention for reducing heterosexually acquired infections with HSV-2, HPV, and HIV in adolescent boys and men. However, it must be emphasized that protection was only partial, and it is critical to promote the practice of safe sex,” the researchers concluded.
 
The study did not show whether the procedure has any effect on homosexual transmission of HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases.
According to an editorial accompanying the study, about 536 million people, or 16 percent of the worldwide population aged 15 to 49, are infected with genital herpes, which can also increase a person’s chance of acquiring HIV. In the US, more than 25 million people, or 17 percent of the adult population, are infected with the herpes virus.