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How do you circumcise a nation? The Rwandan case study

Saturday, 7th of November 2015

How do you circumcise a nation? The Rwandan case study

Mutabazi V¹, Forrest JI², Ford N³, Mills EJ^4,5.

¹Ministry of Health, Republic of Rwanda, Rwanda Biomedical Centre-Medical Research Centre, PO Box 2717, Kigali, Rwanda. mutabazivincent@gmail.com.
²Global Evaluative Sciences, Calgary, Canada. jforrest@geshealth.com.
³Department of HIV/AIDS, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. nford@who.int.
⁴Global Evaluative Sciences, Calgary, Canada. dr.edward.j.mills@gmail.com.
⁵Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University, Stanford, USA. dr.edward.j.mills@gmail.com.

BMC Med. 2014 Oct 6;12:184. doi: 10.1186/s12916-014-0184-4.

Abstract below; full text is at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/12/184

Voluntary medical male circumcision has been conclusively demonstrated to reduce the lifetime risk of male acquisition of HIV. The strategy has been adopted as a component of a comprehensive strategy towards achieving an AIDS-free generation. A number of countries in which prevalence of HIV is high and circumcision is low have been identified as a priority, where innovative approaches to scale-up are currently being explored. Rwanda, as one of the priority countries, has faced a number of challenges to successful scale-up. We discuss here how simplifications in the procedure, addressing a lack of healthcare infrastructure and mobilizing resources, and engaging communities of both men and women have permitted Rwanda to move forward with more optimism in its scale-up tactics. Examples from Rwanda are used to highlight how these barriers can and should be addressed.

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