Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune - September 25, 2005
Francois Venter told a congress of health activists in the Treatment Action Campaign that a survey in Soweto township indicated that circumcised men were 65 percent less likely to contract AIDS than those who had not been circumcised.
"We dream of a vaccine which has this efficacy," said Venter, clinical director of the Reproductive Health and HIV Research at the University of Witwatersrand.
The association between circumcision and a reduced risk of HIV was noted as early as 1987, when Dr. William Cameron of the University of Manitoba in Canada reported findings from a study in Kenya. Some researchers in early studies have said they believe cells in the foreskin may be particularly susceptible to infection.
The Soweto study was done by French researchers from 2002 to 2005 and sampled more than 3,000 males age 18 to 24.
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