THE Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation will soon introduce circumcision programme for children under the age of 15 to help curb HIV/Aids in the country. Homa Bay branch DASCOP coordinator Alice Nyambai said they hope to introduce the program to children under 15 years, as a way of supplementing the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) exercise.
Nyambai said that the programme will help in the reduction of HIV/AIDS infections as more males get circumcised in the region despite being more affordable as compared to the VMMC.
She added that the children circumcision programme will cost the government Sh1, 000 for each circumcised child, while the VMMC costs Sh5, 000. "We are hopeful that the children's circumcision program is likely to be more successful as more grownups are reluctant to enroll for the VMMC that targets males of age bracket 25 to 49 years," said Nyambai.
She said that the since September 2008 when the program was initiated, only 11, 000 men have been circumcised out of the estimated 42, 000 in Homabay district.
At the same time Nyambai called upon the government to ensure a constant supply of HIV/AIDS testing kits in the district saying that the supplied kits are never enough due to the increased number of volunteers in the testing centers.
She added that with the vigorous campaigns and sensitization exercises going on in the district, many people have come out for the testing, a majority of them being women, leading to a 50 percent increase in the number of testings.
She also urged that the government include other consumables such as swaps, spirits, glove and Jik along with the testing Kits for eased sanitation which are a major challenge.
Among other challenges facing the DASCOP is also lack of a long elaizer machine which helps in determining discrepancy testing in the stage one and two results of HIV/AIDS, which is lacking in the district and can only be found in Kisumu and Nairobi at the National Reference lab.
According to the 2010 survey by Kenya Aids Indicators, Homabay County still holds the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate with Suba district at the highest percentage of 26 percent while Homabay district at 17 percent.
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Just as female circumcision (genital mutilation) is a despicable atrocity intended to permanently reduce the sexual sensation of women, so too, male circumcision is nothing but penile-sexual reduction surgery (genital mutilation) intended to permanently reduce the sexual sensation/function of men. Circumcision of defenceless minors is a human rights’ abuse (ie. medically sanctioned sexual child abuse) http://www.cirp.org/library/sex_function/
The evidence from the African RCTs suggest that up to half of new HIV infections are non-sexual. It appears that many females are getting infected through the health care system when they seek medical treatment during pregnancy, even though their husbands are HIV negative. http://sites.google.com/site/davidgisselquist/pointstoconsider
This means that the African HIV epidemic will not be resolved while the focus is on sexual transmission.
Until nosocomial transmission (blood exposures; skin piercing procedures) through the health care system, and through cosmetic skin piercing procedures is addressed, the HIV epidemic can only worsen.
The three RCTs were seriously flawed. There are now several published critiques of the African RCTs showing these studies to be invalid. http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december112011/circumcision-hiv-rg.php http://www.circumcision.org/hiv.htm It is clear that circumcision does NOT prevent/reduce HIV sexual transmission. In fact, circumcision can only worsen the HIV epidemic because: 1) Some men may become HIV infected from the circumcision procedure itself if surgical instruments, syringes etc are used on multiple patients, but inadequately sterilized. 2) At least 25% of men engage in sexual intercourse before their circumcision wounds have healed (half as early as 3 weeks). http://www.aidsmap.com/Quarter-of-men-resume-sex-before-wounds-from-circumc ision-fully-healed-in-Zambian-study/page/2227154/
3) Many circumcised men mistakenly think that they have a "natural condom" so they believe they are "immune to HIV infection" and can be promiscuous with impunity. How wrong they are!
First of all, VMMC is not voluntary. When someone is filling you with the fear that you are going to die unless you have surgery, that is coerced, not voluntary. Circumcision is not medical. There is no disease it prevents, or cures. It is the last choice in treating gangrene or frostbite. There is a gentler method to deal with any other problem. If the incomplete African studies are to be believed (and that is questionable), circumcision protects the male at between 36% and 60%. These results have not been reproduced anywhere else. In the US and UK, multiple studies have shown that circumcised and foreskinned males get the same diseases at the same rates, including HIV. A condom protects both partners, from many diseases including HIV, and is 98% effective, when used regularly and correctly. Better yet, a man gets to keep 100% of his genital skin, not 50%. With better HIV treatments coming out often lately, who would choose an amputation of the most responsive parts of the penis for life? The Swedish Paediatric Society calls circumcision "child abuse". "We consider it to be an assault on these boys," Staffan Janson, chairman of BLF's committee for ethical issues and childrens' rights, said to newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP). How is what is being advocated in this article, not child abuse, and assault? Isn't it better to teach them how to protect themselves with condoms, than it is to cut off body parts, and tell them they are somehow safer, when they are not?
So now it will be forced penis mutilation? That is shameful.
There is no data that shows HIV, HPV or any STD change or any real benefit to cutting off parts of a baby boys penis in the US, EU JP.... Even in Africa about the same number of cut men and natural penis men have HIV. Real world studies how that a man with a natural penis is at no higher risk of HIV and HPV.
No one that is at all credible claims there are no functions to the penis parts cut off. However, the sexual function and pleasure are ignored or downplayed by the penis parts removal pushers. The long term harm is huge with nerve damage and harm to the sensory system. A whole range of sensation and sexual and protective function are lost. The lips, nipples and fingertips have similar touch sense. To take this away from a child is heinous.
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