icon- folder.gif   Conference Reports for NATAP  
 
  4th IAS (Intl AIDS Society) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention
Sydney, Australia
22-25 July 2007
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Post-sex washing 'doesn't lower HIV'
 
 
  July 25, 2007 - 10:14PM
http://www.smh.com.au
 
Washing after sex does not help protect straight men from catching HIV, African research has confirmed.
 
The study of uncircumcised Ugandan men presented at an AIDS conference in Sydney found that so-called "penile cleansing" with soap and water does not reduce the chance of contracting HIV infection.
 
The result was disappointing for the research team who had hoped the popular practice could be a cheap and effective alternative to circumcision, which was recently proven to offer 60 per cent protection for heterosexual men.
 
Rates of HIV are escalating among African men, with more than 4,000 infected daily.
 
Scientists from Uganda enlisted more than 2,500 uncircumcised HIV-negative men and tested them over 18 months for their HIV status and their self-reported post-coital cleansing practices.
 
Almost 85 per cent reported washing every time, said lead researcher Dr Fred Makumbi from Makerere University in Uganda.
 
Most men said they washed with just water and soap, but some also used a cloth or a dry cloth alone.
 
"We found that consistent washing was not associated with a reduction in HIV incidence," Dr Makumbi told delegates at the International AIDS Society congress.
 
In fact, the risk of catching the virus seemed to be higher in those men who used more water when washing, he said.
 
And strangely, HIV rates also were higher among those who washed very soon after sex, as opposed to washing more than 10 minutes later, a result Dr Makumbi said was surprising and "possible unreliable".
 
"It appears that the use of water and (immediate) cleansing may facilitate viral survival and positive infection," Dr Makumbi said.
 
"But this is just a possibility, we don't really know."
 
A previous major study in circumcised men found that bathing could help lower HIV risk, but these men were circumcised so their risk was already lower.
 
Research in women has found vaginal cleansing to increase infection rates.
 
US epidemiologist Professor Robert Bailey, a world authority on circumcision, said there had been a lot of conflicted evidence on cleanliness and HIV risk.
 
"It would be nice if this could be an alternative to a surgical procedure, but there's really not enough evidence to support it," said Prof Bailey, from the University of Illinois.
 
"And even if we found that better hygiene could help prevent HIV, the means of actually practising better hygiene are not actually available to people in the third world."
 
In the meantime, circumcision was the best protective strategy for heterosexual men, he said.