PROGRESS IN SCALE-UP OF MALE CIRCUMCISION FOR HIV PREVENTION

Wednesday, 14th of December 2011

PROGRESS IN SCALE-UP OF MALE CIRCUMCISION FOR HIV PREVENTION

Full text is at http://www.malecircumcision.org/publications/documents/MC_country_update_2011.pdf

From the introduction:

In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) recommended that male circumcision (MC) be recognized as an additional, important strategy for the prevention of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men, particularly in countries with hyperendemic or generalized HIV epidemics and low MC prevalence.1 Thirteen eastern and southern African countries were identified as priorities for

MC scale-up: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The Gambella province of Ethiopia has also been identified as a priority for the United States (US) President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and limited information on Ethiopia is included in the present report. Impact and costing estimates suggest that, by scaling up adult medical male circumcision (MMC) to

reach 80% of males 15 - 49 years in these countries by 2015 and maintaining such coverage until 2025, about 4 million HIV infections could potentially be averted by 2025 with total cost savings of about US$ 20 billion.2

WHO and UNAIDS are monitoring progress in scale-up and impact in these priority countries. As most countries have the key elements of programmes in place, the present report provides an overview of progress by the end of 2010 with a focus on the numbers of MCs performed for HIV prevention.