Are circumcised men safer sex partners? Findings from the HAALSI cohort in rural South Africa

Not necessarily, finds a study published in PLoS ONE by a team of researchers affiliated with Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI). Older men who were circumcised in a hospital setting (as opposed to initiation-based circumcision) had higher HIV prevalence than uncircumcised men. Former Harvard Bell Fellow and HAALSI researcher Molly Rosenberg explains in this article in the South African publication Business Day that it is important to note that circumcision still works to reduce the risk of contracting HIV, and offer possible explanations for these seemingly counter-intuitive findings.