VMMC linked to drop in HIV

A study reveals that two prevention strategies — voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) and antiretroviral therapy (ART) — helped reduce the number of new HIV infections in Rakai, Uganda, reports an article in the Daily Mail. The authors of the study, which was published in the Journal of American Medical Association, analysed data from surveys conducted in 45 rural communities from 1999 to 2013. Over that time, the percentage of men in those communities who were circumcised rose from 19 percent to 39 percent, and ART use increased from zero to 23 percent in women and 21 percent in men. The researchers found that in communities where more than 40 percent of men had been circumcised, new HIV infections among men were reduced by 39 percent, compared with communities where 10 percent or fewer men had been circumcised. Increased ART coverage among women was also linked to reductions in HIV incidence among men (Daily Mail, 12 July 2016).