 b.1. Male Circumcision to Prevent HIV Transmission Male circumcision is perhaps one of the oldest surgical procedures performed on humans. The millenary practice of removing the male foreskin has cultural, religious and medical dimensions that have been widely studied. Around the world, the procedure is mostly performed for religious reasons in persons of the Jewish and Muslim faiths. Medical indications for MC include phimosis, paraphimosis and balanitis, among others12. Early evidence of a relationship between MC and HIV infection came from a number of smaller, mostly observational studies, done in Africa13. These historical data were validated with the completion of three large RCTs in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, which have shown an overall decrease of 50-76 in the risk of acquiring HIV infection in circumcised males when compared to controls1,2,3. 