WINNIPEG — Research spearheaded by Dr. Stephen Moses of the University of Manitoba has found that circumcision among men who participate in heterosexual sex greatly reduces their risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Stephen Moses
Moses recently received national recognition when his findings were listed as one of the top Canadian achievements in health research in 2009 by the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Although scientists had suspected that circumcision was one way to help prevent HIV, Moses’ randomized clinical trials offered conclusive experimental proof to support this claim.
The project, originally started in 2001 in Kenya, where HIV infections have been widespread, involved more than 2,700 men, and was ongoing for five years. The findings of the study showed that those circumcised had a 55 per cent less chance of being infected with HIV/AIDS while having heterosexual intercourse, compared to uncircumcised men. Moses’ clinical trials ended early when it was determined that the results were already so compelling that it was unethical to continue the trials without offering the control group the protection of circumcision.
Moses, 57, who is a physician, a medical microbiology professor and a public health specialist, collaborated with researchers from the United States and Nairobi to conduct his study.
“Since foreskin on the male penis has many receptor cells, circumcision makes it less likely that HIV will be contracted,” he told The CJN.
The study, in conjunction with two other studies showing that circumcision reduced the chances of HIV infection, was named by Time magazine in 2007 as one of the years’ top medical breakthroughs.
Moses’ findings will have the greatest impact in regions where HIV infection rates are high and rates of male circumcision are low, including several countries in eastern and southern Africa.
“In these areas, it could take as few as 19 circumcisions to prevent one person from contracting HIV,” the Toronto native said. “Doing more male circumcisions over a period of years in those countries… could result in a reduction in HIV prevalence in the general population by as much as 67 per cent,” he added.
When asked whether his being Jewish was a factor in his taking an interest in studying the connection between circumcision and HIV prevention, Moses answered, “No, not really. It was more that I was with a research group from U of M, which I joined while I was in Kenya in 1989.”
Moses, who moved to Winnipeg in 1989, noted that the group of researchers was already interested in the topic of male circumcision and HIV infection.
After the results of Moses’ study were made public, male circumcision was endorsed as a preventive measure by the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
In March 2007, these organizations wrote: “The efficacy of male circumcision in reducing female to male transmission of HIV has been proven beyond reasonable doubt.” They went on to recommend that “promoting male circumcision should be recognized as an additional, important strategy for the prevention of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men.”
Moses said that “already this year, in one area in Kenya where circumcision is traditionally not performed, there have been 50,000 circumcisions. The goal is to do 100,000 circumcisions there a year for the next few years.”
When asked about HIV rates and the Jewish community, Moses said that within the Jewish community of North America, those most likely to become infected with HIV are “gay men and intravenous drug users.”
