According to a new study circumcision protects heterosexual men against HIV and also reduces the risk of two other sexually transmitted infections later in life.

The researchers found circumcised men reduced their risk of HPV or human papillomavirus, by 35 % and herpes by 28 % though they found no effect on the transmission of syphilis.

Studies from three African countries Uganda, Kenya and South Africa have shown that circumcision reduced men's chances of getting the AIDS virus by 60 %.

A study of more than 5,000 uncircumcised Ugandan males from the earlier research showed that after circumcision the rates of infection with the herpes virus reduced by 28 % and the transmission of HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and genital warts, was reduced by 35%. The findings are reported in March 26 issue of New England Journal of Medicine.

Lead author of the Ugandan study, Dr. Thomas Quinn, a senior investigator in infectious diseases at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore said, "We hope these data will ultimately result in policy changes in recommending circumcision for young boys or adult men to decrease the rates of infection with HIV, HPV and herpes."

In the latest study 3,393 HIV-negative heterosexual adolescent boys and men from Uganda who were part of the original HIV study were randomly divided into two groups and one group was made to undergo circumcision immediately while the other half had the procedure 2 years later.

After two years 114 circumcised men were found to have herpes infection compared with 153 uncircumcised men and HPV was detected in 42 circumcised men compared with 80 uncircumcised men.

No difference was seen in the rate of syphilis infection between the two groups. Condom use, number of sex partners and other factors were kept in account by the researchers while calculating the risk reductions.

According to surveys by the National Center for Health Statistics worldwide only 30 % of men are circumcised while in the United States about 79 % of men are circumcised.

Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin from the penis, and the researchers said this should be an accepted method to reduce sexually transmitted infections among heterosexuals. "It must be emphasized that protection was only partial, and it is critical to promote the practice of safe sex," they wrote.

Explaining how circumcision could help reduce transmission of certain infections Quinn said the foreskin has two different sides with the outside much like regular skin cells. However, the inside is mucosal, similar to a woman's vagina and during intercourse, the skin side is pulled back and the mucosal side is open and exposed.

He added that it's likely that there are viral receptors on that mucosal side that make it easier for a virus to get into the cells. Plus, if a woman has passed along viral cells, they're get trapped inside the foreskin, in a moist environment conducive for the virus to replicate.

Drs. Matthew Golden and Judith Wasserheit of the University of Washington in an accompanying editorial wrote, "Evidence now strongly suggests that circumcision offers an important prevention opportunity and should be widely available."

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation. It was conducted by the Rakai Health Sciences Program and Makerere University in Uganda, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a division of the National Institutes of Health.