Africa: Study says circumcision reduces HIV infection risk

Uncircumcised African men are at higher risk of HIV infection - because the inner surface of the foreskin contains cells that make it highly susceptible to infection. This new data, believed to be the first of its kind in African men, adds further weight to a South African study that last year revealed that circumcision could protect two-thirds of men from contracting HIV. According to the authors of the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, their research among Kenyan men is the first study of human foreskin tissue that examines why, biologically, uncircumcised African men are more likely to contract HIV than their circumcised counterparts.