KENYA TARGETS TO CIRCUMCISE 1 MILLION MEN IN FOUR YEARS TIME
By Dickens Wasonga in Kisumu
Kenya’s ministry of health is targetting to circumcise an estimated one million men in the next four years during the ongoing male circumcision for HIV prevention program.
The program, which aims to reduce the number of new HIV infections in the country by improving and expanding the provision of safe and voluntary male circumcision services, was lauched 3 years ago, and has since seen 90,000 men go for the cut in Nyanza province, where the project began.
In a speech read on his behalf by the member of parliament for Kisumu town west, Hon Olago Aluoch, during the third stakeholder’s meeting on voluntary medical male circumcision, at Kisumu’s Tom Mboya labour college, the medical services minister, prof Anyan’g Nyon’go said public health experts have advised on the need to carry out safe, medical circumcision as a new intervention, to prevent HIV alongside the other practised methods, which includes abstinence, being faithful, and correct and consistent condom use.
The minister observed that the strategy was embraced after three clinical trials conducted among uncircumcised men showed that being circumcised drastically reduced the men’s chances of becoming infected with HIV.
The studies conducted in Kisumu, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa showed that male circumcision lowered the risk of HIV infection by about 60 percent.
Out of the total number of men expected to undergo the cut in the country, Nyanza will account for 430,000 men who fall between the ages of 15 to 49 years.
The government chose to first roll out the program in the province where culturally men are not circumcised. The region is also leading on HIV prevalence, which stand at 16 percent, higher than even the national average, according to statistics from the ministry.
The circumcision services are provided free in government health facilities and in various identified outreach centers.
Family Health International(FHI), the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Engender Health are partners of the consortium which carry out the project in close collaboration with the ministry of public health and medical services, and the Nyanza Reproductive Health Society, in support of a national effort led by the government of Kenya.
Its funded by a grant to FHI from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2008 to 2013.
Even though the program has recieved huge support from the local elites, particularly amongst the area’s political class, who include the prime minister Raila Odinga, the community’s elders have given it a lukewarm welcome.
Led by its council chairman, ker Riaga Ogalo, the elders still appear to want to cling to the community’s old ways and constantly encourage the locals to stick to cultural preservation so as not to lose their identity.
However, going by the swelling numbers of males rushing to undergo the cut, especially by the young men from the area, it’s clear many people would do anything to beat the scourge.
Speaking at the same function, the Kisumu east district commissioner, Mr Mabeya Mogaka warned those who deliberately infect others with the virus in the town to watch ou,t because the long arm of the law will soon catch up with them.
ENDS.
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.
What is the science behind this body mutilation? Anyang’ should share with the community the studies that he finds so compelling as to override the age old no circumcision wisdom.
In the days of old, some communities removed lower teeth to facilitate medicine and food intake to save lives whenever self feeding was impaired. That was needful. The practice was engrained into cultural requirements to to ensure compliance. How about circumcision?
My take on HIV/AIDS is so extreme that it has put a fright even on the way I think. There are times I attempt to believe the mutating virus run of the mill rigmarole. There are times my mind takes me on population control movements before the outbreak of HIV/AIDS. There are also times that I think poor countries government types, Anyang’ in this case, repeat nonsense for donor countries to continue sending money to fund programs that has no relevance to fighting the virus and its impact in the communities it has devastated.
What is even more urgent now is not even the cure. The problem is children left taking care of children. How does the government come to the rescue of these children? The ping ponging around with what will control the virus is so annoying that I choose to pass it in silence.
Owetena,
Wadhiuru Nyang’u e yo makare. We kelo siasa e weche geng’o kute mek Ayaki. Bura ni ne wasegoyo bu ne watieko ni onge oganda ma ibiro chun gi thuon. Ka seche ni mag risky age osekalo, kata ka isewilo kiti gi timbeni, to we goyo koko mamiyo yowuote wa matindo oluor dhi Nynag’u.
Som ka ae iterwa mos.
http://joragem.blogspot.com/2010/03/come-to-us-die-trying-but-use-condom-be.html
Joragem
Joram,
I do not stand on the path of change if its time has come. I am not an island I exist because my people existed culturally and everything. If I have to discard part of that existence I must have irrefutable evidence that that change will enhance my and my communities existence, The jury is out on circumcision vs HIV/AIDS debate.
Kindly do not fly the your ways-are-inferior colonial banner on my face. I would want proof that my ways are bad for me then I will change. I repeat my challenge to Minister Anyang’ share with me the science.
Circumcision is harmful to both men and women and does not necessarily stop HIV. You are being robbed of sexual pleasure because exposing that area makes the skin thick and insensitive. The foreskin keeps it healthy and moist and a man can be virile into his eighties. Cut men lose sensitivity and lose their libido. Do not be fooled. This is what cut men are using here in the west: http://senslip.com/cms.php?id_cms=15