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Uncircumcised Men Have Greater HIV Risk
 A recent study conducted by some Chicago researchers has revealed that the layer of internal mucosa inside the penis is more susceptible to HIV infection than its external skin or cervical tissue. If this is true, then it would mean that men with
uncircumcised penis run a greater risk of contacting HIV infection than the one who have had undergone circumcision already.
In fact, this upward trend in the number of HIV infections amongst uncircumcised men had been noticed earlier itself - in the various studies conducted - but the exact reason for this was unknown to the experts till date.
A study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Pathology by researchers at Children's Memorial Hospital, the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, and the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, throws light over the possible biological mechanisms that could explain the science behind the protective shield that circumcision offers.
The researchers studied foreskin tissue samples taken from six adults and eight children who had undergone circumcision for some reason or the other. These tissues, when compared with cervical tissue that served as controls, it was found out that the internal mucosa layer have a higher concentration of the cells that are more prone to HIV infection than the latter.
In other words, the foreskin mucosa had a higher percentage of macrophages, CD4 T cells, and Langerhans' Cells (LC), which are HIV target cells, than cervical tissue. Further, it has been observed that the concentration of HIV target cells in foreskin mucosa is higher for people who already have had any sexually transmitted infection earlier.
This finding in fact is consistent with some the earlier studies done by researchers, which have pointed out that HIV infection is more in people having STD infections or with a similar history than one without it.
According to the associated scientists, while this study proves beyond doubt the difference in levels of infection that affects foreskin mucosa and cervical tissue, they have not yet verified the results in the case of a circumcised penis owing to the difficulty in obtaining tissue samples of the same due to various reasons. For the time being, the result is like, if this is true, the other is also ought to be true.
In order to address this short coming, Mr. Robert Bailey, PhD, MPH, Division of Epidemiology, from the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and his team is conducting an elaborate study in East Africa by collecting tissue samples from 1,400 people - both circumcised and uncircumcised - belonging to the same city, and conducting various experiments, the results of which will be published in another four years time. Hopefully, that will provide a solid conclusion on the debate, whether circumcision reduced HIV risk or not.
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