Editor's Note: Please see my comment in this story. -Elisa

Erika wrote a thoughtful story regarding the personal decision facing parents regarding circumcision a while back after a report came out that circumcision can lower the risk of contracting HIV by 50%.  Since then, the numbers have been revised and now experts think it is closer to 60%.

This week, the U.N. health agencies have released new recommendations  regarding circumcision:

U.N. health agencies recommended Wednesday that heterosexual men undergo circumcision because of "compelling" evidence that it can reduce their chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent.

But World Health Organization and UNAIDS experts said men need to be aware that circumcision is only partial protection against the virus and must be used with other measures.

Here are huge caveats to this policy:

Still, men and women who consider male circumcision as an HIV preventive method need to continue using other forms of protection such as male and female condoms, abstinence, delaying the start of sexual activity and reducing the number of sexual partners, she said.

Otherwise, they could develop a false sense of security and engage in high-risk behaviors that could undermine the partial protection provided by male circumcision, the agencies said.

Men also should be warned that they are at a higher risk of being infected with HIV if they resume sex before their wound has healed. Likewise an HIV-positive man can more easily pass on the disease to his partner if the wound is still unhealed.