By David Liu, Ph.D. and editing by Aimee Keenan-Greene

Should HIV prevention be a reason to circumcise?

Researchers, looking at ways to stop the spread of HIV,  are taking a closer look at the role of circumcision as a potential disease preventative.

A new report released by the International AIDS Society suggests circumcision may reduce the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted HIV by 60 percent in adult men.

The study involved 110,000 adults in South Africa. It remains unknown whether this association holds true also in the U.S. population.

Additionally, this study is not a trial.  It found only an association between circumcision and the reduced rate of HIV.  It does not prove that circumcision indeed prevents HIV infection.

Even if circumcision does reduce the risk of HIV acquisition, the prevention is not 100%.  A circumcised man still must use other preventative measures like condoms to prevent HIV infection. 

The potential implication of the findings is that circumcised men may think it is okay for them not to use condoms when they practice some risky sexual acts.

Men should never count on circumcision to prevent HIV infection, a health observer suggested.

The study was conducted by researchers of J.-M. Molina of Hopital Saint Louis in Paris, France and colleagues from other countries.

Could vitamin D be the potential preventative against HIV infection?

Studies suggest that taking high doses of vitamin D may help reduce the risk of HIV infection because vitamin D strengthens immunity against viruses and bacteria.

Studies show HIV positive patients are more likely to be vitamin D deficient.   

Thus, could vitamin D deficiency play a role in the HIV infection?

Black people seem more prone to HIV infection.  It is a fact that black people are more likely than white people to suffer vitamin D deficiency.    That may also suggest vitamin D deficiency may play a role in the HIV infection?

One study in the Oct 1 2009 issue of Journal of Infectious Diseases found taking high doses of vitamin D helped reduce the odds of mother-to-child HIV transmission.

The study of 884 HIV infected women in Tanzania, which was conducted by Mehta S. and colleagues from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts,  examined whether vitamin D protects against adverse pregnancy outcomes, mother-to-child HIV transmission and child mortality.

Mehta et al. found women with low maternal vitamin D defined as having 32 ng/mL were at 50 percent more likely to spread HIV to their children at 6 weeks, compared with those who had sufficient vitamin D.

After 6 weeks, women with such low serum concentrations of maternal vitamin D were found twice as likely as those who had sufficient vitamin D to spread HIV to their children who were not infected at 6 weeks through breastfeeding.

Overall, children born to mothers whose maternal vitamin D was low were 46 percent more likely to get infected with HIV from their mothers and 61 percent more likely to die.

Vitamin D reduces the risk of death in HIV carriers

Viard J. P. of Centre de Diagnostic et de Thérapeutique, Hôtel-Dieu, APHP, and EA 3620, Université Paris Descartes, France and colleagues published a study in the Jan 2011 issue of AIDS showing high levels of vitamin D may reduce the risk of death from HIV and HIV-complications.

The researchers found  vitamin D is protective against HIV after analysing data on plasma vitamin D concentrations in 2000 people in the EuroSIDA study and incidence of all-cause mortality, AIDS and non-AIDS events.

Compared to those whose serum vitamin D was in the lowest 25(OH)D tertile defined as less than 12 ng/mL, people who had 12-20 ng/ml or more than 20 ng/ml were 32 percent or 44 percent less likely to die from all causes, respectively.

Those with 12-20 ng/ml or more than 20 ng/ml were also 42 percent and 39 percent less likely to experience AIDS events, respectively.

Non-AIDS related events were also found reduced in those with high levels of vitamin D.

Vitamin D has been associated with more than 100 types of health conditions including 17 types of cancers, according to The Vitamin D Council.