Tuesday, 25th of March 2008 |
CSU 12/2008: PROMOTING MALE CIRCUMCISION IN RWANDA
The Republic of Rwanda has three ethnic groups (Hutu, Tutsi and Twa)
which do not (except among the Muslim minority) routinely practice male
circumcision.
This press report discusses the plans of the Rwandan government to
promote male circumcision as a method of reducing the risk of heterosexual
HIV transmission.
This note is cross posted from Aids-Africa Forum.
Good reading.
BD
"Rwanda To Launch Campaign Aimed At Addressing Circumcision Myths,
Encouraging Procedure In Effort To Prevent HIV" Article Date: 27 Feb
2008
Health authorities in Rwanda are planning to launch a nationwide campaign
this year aimed at addressing myths about male circumcision and encouraging
men to be circumcised in an effort to prevent the spread of HIV,
McClatchy/Miami Herald reports (Miami Herald, 2/24).
Rwanda announced plans to launch the campaign in September 2007. According
to final data from two NIH-funded studies -- conducted in Uganda and Kenya
and published last year in the journal Lancet -- routine male circumcision
could reduce a man's risk of HIV infection through heterosexual sex by 65%.
The results of the Uganda and Kenya
studies mirrored similar results of a study conducted in South Africa in
2005. In response to the findings, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS
in March 2007 recommended the procedure as a way to help reduce
transmission of the virus through heterosexual sex.
The campaign will initially target the army, police officers and university
students, Innocent Nyaruhirira, the country's health minister, said. The
campaign will aim to reduce the cost of the procedure, which can be as much
as $55 at private hospitals, as well as ensure it is covered by basic
health insurance policies.
According to McClatchy/Herald, many men in the country have already
received the procedure. Justin Gatete -- a nurse at a clinic in Kigali,
Rwanda's capital -- said he performed more than 1,000 circumcisions last
year.
"We're not going to wake up one morning and have all men be circumcised,"
Anita Asiimwe, director of Rwanda's Treatment and Research AIDS Center,
said, adding, "We need to see how best to implement this."
Health experts from the U.S. are helping Rwandan officials develop the
campaign. The Bush administration has said it would allocate funds in the
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to make circumcision more
accessible in Africa. Kenya, Swaziland and Zambia have announced plans to
make the procedure available in public
clinics, McClatchy/Herald reports (McClatchy/Miami Herald, 2/24).
Aids-Africa is a forum for communication and information on AIDS related
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Join us on hiv/aids forum on Kenya at
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