More effort is needed to prevent new cases of HIV infection and AIDS prevention techniques such as condoms, circumcision and new drugs are improving. But a US study found that circumcision offers little HIV protection to gay/bisexual men.

Previous studies found that circumcision may reduce a man’s risk of infection with the AIDS virus by up to 60 percent if he is an African. Things are different with American men of colour, as the surgery does not appear to protect them. A new US analysis of data on 53,567 men who have sex with men found HIV rates were not significantly lower among those who were circumcised.

Researchers led by Gregorio Millett, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention behavioural scientist, analyzed data on circumcision and HIV risk from 15 different studies of nearly 54,000 men had sex with men, of which 52% were circumcised. The results of the report were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Over all, we’re not finding a protective effect associated with circumcision for gay and bisexual men,” said Gregorio A. Millett of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Circumcised men were 14 percent less likely to be infected with the AIDS virus than uncircumcised men, but the finding was not statistically different. The benefit could be due to chance, the researchers said.

The World Health Organization recommends circumcision as one of the ways to prevent HIV infection. The procedure consists in the surgical removal of a flap skin from the tip of a man’s penis. Doctors say that circumcision protects men from AIDS because of specialized cells in the foreskin of the penis that are removed in the procedure. The foreskin is filled with immune cells called Langerhans cells, which are the immune system’s sentinels and attach easily to viruses, including HIV. Although the method does not protect men 100%, studies in Africa suggest the method is 50 to 60 percent protective. A research made in New Zeeland discovered that circumcision dwindled by 50 percent the rate of STDs among men younger that 25. The most spread STDs were genital warts, Chlamydia and genital herpes.

The procedure is very common in the United States, Europe and Muslim countries. Approximately 55% to 65% of all newborn boys are circumcised in the United States each year.

More cases HIV infection still occur among “men who have sex with men” (MSM). Circumcision is effective if it goes hand-in-hand with safe sexual behaviour. Unsafe sex may reduce the benefits of circumcision. According to US studies involving gay (which are more exposed to the virus) and bisexual men infected with HIV, more than one third admitted that they have recently had unprotected intercourse. Condoms provide effective prevention and their use is increasing, but some people don’t use them and this decision increases the risk of HIV infection.

An estimated 1.1 million Americans have contracted the AIDS virus, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. 232,700 of the 1.1 million people who contracted the virus weren’t aware that they were infected with the AIDS virus. 48% of them are men who have sex with men (MSM), 72% of women with HIV and 13% of men with the same virus were infected through heterosexual intercourse.