2011-12-11 salem-news.com - Flawed Studies Used to Claim Circumcision Reduces HIV Infection

[DerekV12345]

Flawed Studies Used to Claim Circumcision Reduces HIV Infection
- Salem-News.com


"... Unfortunately, it appears that this compulsion continues to drive some professionals and authorities to promote circumcision without proper critical analysis."

(BOSTON) - An article in the December Journal of Law and Medicine cites numerous flaws in three African studies that claim male circumcision reduces transmission of HIV. (see: the article here)

According to the article, the studies, which are being used to promote the circumcision of up to 38 million men in Africa, had selection bias, inadequate blinding, problematic randomization, experimenter bias, lead time bias, supportive bias, participant expectation bias, time-out discrepancy, and lack of investigating of non-sexual HIV transmission among other confounding factors and problems.

The absolute reduction in HIV transmission associated with male circumcision for the three studies was only about 1.3%. The African studies had cited the relative reduction in HIV transmission, a misleading figure. Reports in the popular press have been even more misleading. Furthermore, there are at least 17 observational studies that have not found any benefit from male circumcision in reducing HIV transmission. Since condom use after male circumcision is essential to prevent sexual transmission of HIV, circumcision does not have any additional value.


URL: http://www.salem-news.com/articles/d...ion-hiv-rg.php