Harare — ZIMBABWE needs to circumcise 1,2 million men by 2015 if the male circumcision intervention against the spread of HIV is to have a national impact, a senior Health and Child Welfare Ministry official has said.
Under the pilot circumcision programme that started in 2007, over 5 000 men have been circumcised.
Addressing a two-day workshop on the male circumcision rollout strategy last week, head of the ministry's Aids Tuberculosis Unit Dr Owen Mugurungi said there was need to circumcise a critical mass. Male circumcision reduces chances of contracting HIV by 60 percent.
It must be complemented by condom use, abstinence and faithfulness to one partner.
"MC is not vaccination. It only makes a difference if only done on a critical mass," he said.
There is no direct advantage in circumcising HIV positive males, the workshop heard. Dr Mugurungi said: "If we continue without MC, 95 000 men will be infected each year.
"If we do MC, less than 20 000 will be infected," he said.
MC focal person in the Health Ministry Dr Sinokuthemba Xaba said emphasis should be on circumcising the 15 to 29-year age group, as it was the most affected by HIV and Aids.
"We need impact today," he said.
Workshop participants advocated for more resources and payment of incentives to health personnel performing the procedure following reports that some centres had closed because of lack of funding.
The workshop drew participants from the Health Ministry, district and provincial hospitals, NGOs, the private sector and the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists.
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Circumcision is a dangerous distraction in the fight against AIDS. There are six African countries where men are *more* likely to be HIV+ if they've been circumcised: Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, and Swaziland. Eg in Malawi, the HIV rate is 13.2% among circumcised men, but only 9.5% among intact men. In Rwanda, the HIV rate is 3.5% among circumcised men, but only 2.1% among intact men. If circumcision really worked against AIDS, this just wouldn't happen. We now have people calling circumcision a "vaccine" or "invisible condom", and viewing circumcision as an alternative to condoms. The South African National Communication Survey on HIV/AIDS, 2009 found that 15% of adults across age groups "believe that circumcised men do not need to use condoms".
The one randomized controlled trial into male-to-female transmission showed a 54% higher rate in the group where the men had been circumcised btw.
ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful, Condoms) is the way forward. Promoting genital surgery will cost African lives, not save them.
Those figures (95,000 HIV cases without circumcision, 20,000 with) might as well have been been just pulled out of a hat. In the three trials of circumcision, 5,400 men were circumcised and a similar number left alone. After less than two years, 64 circumcised men had HIV and 137 of the control group. That difference, 73 circumcised men who didn't get HIV (while 327 circumcised men dropped out of the trials, their HIV status unknown), is the total evidence that circumcision is protective. It has been multiplied by 1000 to get the figures above using many assumptions, most of them probably false - for example that circumcising men en masse in the field will have exactly the same effect as circumcising them in laboratory conditions.
Zimbabwe has many serious health issues; The money and effort being spent on circumcision would save more lives if it were used to deal with those.
Those figures (95,000 HIV cases without circumcision, 20,000 with) might as well have been just pulled out of a hat. In the three trials of circumcision, 5,400 men were circumcised and a similar number left alone. After less than two years, 64 circumcised men had HIV and 137 of the control group. That difference, 73 circumcised men who didn't get HIV (while 327 circumcised men dropped out of the trials, their HIV status unknown), is the total evidence that circumcision is protective. It has been multiplied by 1000 to get the figures above using many assumptions, most of them probably false - for example that circumcising men en masse in the field will have exactly the same effect as circumcising them in laboratory conditions.
Zimbabwe has many serious health issues; The money and effort being spent on circumcision would save more lives if it were used to deal with those.
LET CIRCUMCISION BE A REALITY!!!! And, why is Africa always prolonging on things that are vital, important and developmental to Africa and Africans??? Why??? Let stop the backwardness and MOVE forward to uplift our people and the continent. Africa stop sleeping on important and vital developmental areas that are helpful for Africa and her children DEVELOPMENT. I do understand that we need to find the right people to forward whatever needed to be done; but I do surely believe that there are very patriotical intelligent Africans who are willing to forward any developmental agendas for their brothers, sisters and the continent.
Indiscriminate circumcisions for the wrong beliefs are your ticket to manufacturing millions of coffins - the only booming industry your continent will have in the end with most of its men, women and children dead to HIV/AIDS.
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