SOUTH AFRICA: Circumcision, fidelity touted against AIDS
JOHANNESBURG, 24 April 2006 (PlusNews) - Male circumcision and faithfulness should take precedence over condoms or abstinence in stemming HIV/AIDS in Africa, experts said in Johannesburg, South Africa last week.
According to Daniel Halperin, a US HIV prevention expert, condoms were rarely used by regular sex partners, while abstinence usually delayed HIV infection of young people by only a year or two.
"But persuading people to have just one sex partner at a time and men to be circumcised could help end a perfect storm of the disease in Southern Africa," Halperin told reporters during a gathering to analyse 20 years of AIDS studies from the continent.
Last year a first ever controlled study found male circumcision appeared to cut HIV transmission by 60 percent to 75 percent.
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