Male circumcision, which has been shown to protect men from infection with the AIDS virus, appears to protect women, too, US and Ugandan researchers have reported recently.

Circumcising men reduced infections in their female partners by 30 per cent, the researchers found. One said the difference may be related to the structure of the foreskin, which is removed in circumcision.

In a study of more than 300 Ugandan couples in which the man infected the woman, the researchers found that 299 women caught HIV from uncircumcised partners and only 44 were infected by circumcised men.

Circumcision also reduced the risk of infection with other sexually-transmitted diseases such as trichomonas and bacterial vaginosis, but not syphilis, gonorrhea or chlamydia, the researchers told an AIDS meeting in Denver.

Dr Thomas Quinn of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has been leading a team that studies 12,000 volunteers in Rakai, Uganda. They have been studying transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

Circumcision’s benefits may stem from the structure of the foreskin of the penis. Its inner lining, or mucosa, carries cells that are vulnerable to the AIDS virus.“Also that mucosal layer does not have the thick keratin (skin) that the outside skin of the foreskin has,” Oliver Laeyendecker, who worked on the study, said in an interview.

3 more problems averted by ritual cuts

1: Human papilloma virus infection: Several studies have shown that non-circumcised men are at a greater risk of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. While most genital HPV strains are considered harmless, some can, but not necessarily, cause genital warts or even cancer in both men and women

2: Inflammation: Circumcision reduces the amount of smegma (a combination of exfoliated or shed skin cells), oils and moisture that can accumulate under the foreskin of males and within the female vulva with a characteristic strong odour. In rare cases, accumulating smegma may play into causing balanitis or inflammation of the penis.

3: Penile cancer: Uncircumcised men are vulnerable to the cancer of the penis, i.e. on the glans or the foreskin. The lifetime risk of cancer is estimated to be 0.17 per cent for an uncircumcised male, and 80 per cent of the cases are men over 70.