More than 300 young men in Kisumu have been circumcised in a study that aims to find out whether circumcision reduces the chances of HIV infection. 

The interest in the study, with some local scientists questioning it on ethical and safety grounds, has been beyond the researchers' expectations. Over 600 young men have volunteered since the study began six months ago. Half of them have been circumcised.

According to Prof Ndinya Achola, the principal investigator and the brains behind the study, his team is not giving any incentives to adults to lure them into agreeing to be circumcised. Nevertheless, those participating in the study are getting free medical attention whenever they are sick.

Funded by America's National Institute of Health, the study is the first of its kind in the world, and attempts to come up with hard data on the correlation between HIV infections and circumcision. A few weeks ago, South Africa initiated theirs, with Uganda gearing up to start a similar one soon.

If these studies are successful and prove that circumcision indeed helps to reduce chances of HIV infection, then they will provide evidence for circumcision to be added to a list of public intervention strategies towards preventing the spread of HIV/Aids.

Prof Achola argues that he wants to verify - via conducting a study - earlier studies, which only compare HIV infection rates between communities circumcising men and those that do not.

"We want to provide evidence based on practical results to justify or refute what other studies involving the comparison of untested phenomenon say."

His argument is perhaps the feeling of Dr De Vincenzi, who argues in his paper: Male Circumcision: a role in HIV prevention: "The evidence for an association, at least from small-scale surveys, is doubtful and hence not conclusive enough to qualify circumcision as an intervention."

Other scientists have dismissed the existing studies saying they do not show evidence of a causal relationship between circumcision and reduced rates of HIV infection. Hence there has been increasing demand that studies to produce hard data be done, mostly in Africa where three quarters of those infected with HIV in the world live.