The world's largest Aids conference

The world's largest conference on HIV / Aids is taking place in Sydney, Australia. More than 5000 delegates will be introduced to a study confirming that circumcision in men can reduce HIV infection rates by 60%. Participants were also urged to sign a statement to promote HIV research.

The main proposal of this statement is that HIV programs need to spend at least 10% of research budget.

"Powerful tool"

Conference wants to increase research budget (Photo: AFP)

It has long been known that HIV rates among Muslim men in sub-Saharan Africa are lower than those outside Islam. But they are not sure whether the reason is that these people are circumcised or because they have fewer partners.

Evidence from Kenya and Uganda confirms a previous study in South Africa, which means that circumcision in young people can reduce HIV infection rates by 60%. Tests in Kenya and Uganda were made in 2000 men in each country where half of them were circumcised.

In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, infection rates increase to 40% in adults - so circumcision can be a powerful tool. But experts emphasize that this must be done by surgeons, and the educational program is included.

Access to medicine

The delegates of the conference from more than 130 countries were also called to sign the Sydney Declaration. Its main message is that governments need to spend more money on HIV research. The statement said this would help speed up the application of new drugs and technologies to prevent and treat.

The forum will also be told that although the majority of people who need drugs in poor countries have not yet received drugs, the rate of access to drugs has improved over the past few years.

In sub-Saharan Africa, more than one million people received the drug as of June 2006 - tenfold since 2003.