Male circumcision appears to offer more protection to men than previously estimated, according to new research from Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The researchers involved in the study found that male circumcision not only that protects men against contracting the HIV virus, but it also offers protection against two other known sexual transmitted diseases, namely herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.
 
“Male circumcision significantly reduced the incidence of…HIV infection among men in three clinical trials. We assessed the efficacy of male circumcision for the prevention of…HSH-2 and…HOV infections and syphilis in HIV-negative adolescent boys and men,” Aaron A.R. Tobian, MD, PhD, from Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues wrote in the March 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
 
The findings come from a study of men and adolescent boys in Uganda and although they are optimistic, the researchers caution that male circumcision should not be viewed as an option to prevent infection with the three viruses, as it provides only partial protection against them.
 
The Uganda trial was supported by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and involved 3,393 uncircumcised heterosexual males ranging in age from 15 to 49. None of them had genital herpes. They were divided into two groups: half of them were assigned to get circumcised at the start of the trial while the others were designated to undergo the operation after a two-year wait.
 
At the end of the study, circumcised participants were one-fourth less likely to have genital herpes and one third less apt to carry a type of HPV that causes cervical cancer in women and genital warts in both sexes, compared with uncircumcised participants. To be more specific, the circumcised volunteers were still nearly one-third less likely to carry one type of HPV, study coauthor Thomas Quinn, an infectious disease physician at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said.
 
“We hope these data will ultimately result in policy changes in recommending circumcision for young boys or adult men to decrease the rates of infection with HIV, HPV and herpes,” said Quinn.
 
Both infection with genital herpes and HPV is common in the United States, according to recent statistics. Nationwide, at least 45 million people ages 12 and older, or one out of five adolescents and adults, have had genital HSV infection. Genital HSV-2 infection is more common in women (approximately one out of four women) than in men (almost one out of eight). Referring to HPV infection, Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV, and another 6.2 million people become newly infected each year. At least 50% of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives.