2006年VOA标准英语-Studies Show Male Circumcision Reduces HIV Risk

By David McAlary
Washington
13 December 2006

Two long awaited studies from Africa show that a man's risk of getting the AIDS virus heterosexually is cut in half if he is circumcised. As we hear from VOA's David McAlary in Washington, public health experts say circumcision can be a new weapon in the anti-HIV arsenal¹.

Many studies have suggested that male circumcision protects against HIV, but two new ones from Kenya and Uganda provide the strongest evidence so far.

The Kenyan trial of 2,700 HIV-negative men aged² 18 to 24 shows that circumcision reduced their risk of AIDS from heterosexual intercourse³ by 53 percent.

The parallel Uganda study of 5,000 HIV-negative men aged 15 to 49 shows a similar result - a 48 percent reduction in risk. They confirm a French government study in South Africa last year showing that circumcision confers a 60 percent lower risk of HIV infection during heterosexual sex.

The findings are so strong that the U.S. government agency sponsoring the trials, the National Institute of Allergy⁴ and Infectious Diseases, halted them several months early so the uncircumcised men in them could take advantage of the procedure.

Dr. Anthony Fauci (25 Jul 2006)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the agency's director, said, "If you look at the data, they are very powerful."

"It is quite impressive, the effect of circumcision on decreasing the incidence of HIV infection," he continued.

Fauci and other public health officials hail the results as a potentially powerful way to reduce HIV infections in Africa.

Physician Willard Cates, head of research at Family Health International, a U.S. non-governmental organization working to improve health care in developing countries, said, "We will have another new tool available for prevention."

At the World Health Organization, the head of its HIV/AIDS Department, Dr. Kevin DeCock, says male circumcision has the potential to prevent perhaps millions of infections in the coming years.

But he warns that the procedure is not completely protective.

He said, "This must not reduce our emphasis on other preventive interventions⁶ - behavioral interventions, regular and consistent use of condoms."

Willard Cates at Family Health International calls for prompt action by the global community to support expanded access to safe, voluntary male circumcision services.

DeCock says the World Health Organization will convene⁷ a meeting very early in the new year among the researchers, the donor⁸ community, and other partners to discuss the public policy implications of the findings.

He said, "We're at the very important point of beginning translation of these findings into policy and then potentially into practice."

But Willard Cates says expanding access to safe male circumcision services could run into several complications in poor countries, which he lists.

"Deficiencies of health systems in Africa, cultural barriers to acceptance of circumcision as a prevention tool, and the limited number of trained medical providers in the countries where the intervention⁵ might hold the most promise," he said.

Cates says overcoming such barriers will require focused attention.

Experts say the prevalence of male circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa varies widely. In some areas, nearly all men have not had it.

But the director of the World Bank's Global HIV/AIDS Program, Debrewerk Zewdie, says it is becoming more acceptable in southern African countries that are among the hardest hit by the epidemic⁹.

"Most of the southern African countries, Lesotho being a very good example, are going to go into mass circumcision," she said. "That's very good on the one hand, but we need to be very careful that we get this right."

For Zewdie, getting it right means safe male circumcision by trained medical providers to keep complication rates down.

The U.S. and African researchers who conducted the two studies found that traditional circumcision led to complication rates of 34 percent in Kenya and 18 percent in Uganda. By comparison, complication rates in the carefully conducted studies were very low - less than two percent.

Like Debrewerk Zewdie, Anthony Fauci foresees male circumcision gaining wider acceptance.

He said, "So although it was a little bit late in coming, I think the enthusiasm for it is mounting, to the point where it will assume its appropriate role as one of the major components¹⁰ of preventive measures."

1 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 intercourse   

n.性交；交流，交往，交际

参考例句：

• The magazine becomes a cultural medium of intercourse between the two peoples.该杂志成为两民族间文化交流的媒介。
• There was close intercourse between them.他们过往很密。

4 allergy   

n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症

参考例句：

• He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
• The patient had an allergy to penicillin.该患者对青霉素过敏。

5 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

6 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

7 convene   

v.集合，召集，召唤，聚集，集合

参考例句：

• The Diet will convene at 3p.m. tomorrow.国会将于明天下午三点钟开会。
• Senior officials convened in October 1991 in London.1991年10月，高级官员在伦敦会齐。

8 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

9 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

10 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。