ZIMBABWE: Men resist being cut

Weekend Post
October 17, 2014

Men still hesitant to be circumcised

by Wendy Muperi
GOVERNMENT has bemoaned limited demand for voluntary medical male circumcision half a decade after its introduction.

Owen Mugurungi, director AIDS and TB Unit in the ministry of Health, said thousands of men are still avoiding the nip owing to false beliefs surrounding the procedure — making the fulfilment of national targets a tall order which demands community involvement.

“The programme experiences limited demand in some areas due to religious, cultural issues as well as some misconceptions regarding male circumcision,” said Mugurungi.

“The responsibility is not for the ministry alone. If we rally behind male circumcision as part of the HIV prevention strategy we have in Zimbabwe, we will jointly be able to, not only meet the target, but influence the reduction in HIV incidence”.

A number of weird stories about circumcision have widely been circulated in Zimbabwe. Recently, the ministry allayed fears that foreskins are being illicitly sold to the global cosmetics industry and traditional healers which are rife in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe launched the programme in 2009 to circumcise 1, 3 million young men in eight years in an effort to reduce HIV infections — which stand at 57 000 annually.

As of June, a total of 98 245 males aged 13 years and above got circumcised against an annual target of 217 800.

Since the programme’s inception in 2009, a total of 302 555 males have been circumcised against a 2017 target of 1, 3 million men.

A report by UNAids and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the risk of HIV infection among men could be reduced by 60 percent.

Currently, the country has 1, 2 million people living with the virus....

UGANDA: Men resist being cut

Aids Ark
October 9, 2014

Uganda's flagging male circumcision drive

SHAREKAMPALA, 8 October 2014 (IRIN) – Limited funding and personnel, as well as misconceptions and cultural beliefs, are some of the challenges hindering Uganda’s goal of circumcising at least 4.2 million men by 2015 in a bid to lower the country’s HIV/AIDS incidence.

Just 26 percent, about 1.4 million, of the men targeted under the Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) programme – launched in September 2010 – had been circumcised by the end of 2013, according to Uganda’s AIDS Commission (UAC) mid-term review report of the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan (2011-2015).

The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) indicate that circumcising 4.2 million Ugandan men in 2011-2015 could help to halve the country’s HIV incidence. Uganda’s HIV prevalence rate has risen from 6.4 to 7.3 percent over the past five years.

The 4.2 million target represents 80 percent of the estimated number of uncircumcised men in Uganda. “I don’t think we will achieve the 80 percent target by 2015. The service is limited to a few areas mainly because of the limited funding from donors and government. PEPFAR contributes the biggest portion of this fund out of the many donors supporting health related projects,” Sylvia Nakasi, policy and advocacy officer, Uganda Network of AIDS Service Organizations (UNASO), told IRIN.

“Other factors affecting demand are the mixed messages on SMC, limited coordination of the private and public SMC service providers which affects timely reporting and quality assurance of the service provided, limited training of health workers to do SMC surgery, inadequate SMC supplies, lack of SMC champions and limited health workers.”

According to the UAC report, about 14 districts (out of 112) had reported no SMC activities by March 2013.

“We have had challenges in building capacity and putting systems in our health facilities for the service,” Joshua Musinguzi, the programme manager of the AIDS Control Programme at Uganda’s Ministry of Health, told IRIN. “We are now focused to consolidate and scale up SMC to try to achieve our target. We have harmonized communication materials to create demand, uptake, fight behavioural disinhibition and dispel myths.”

Myths and misconceptions
The UAC report noted that limited mass awareness on SMC may lead to risky sexual behaviour. “Disinhibition” implies the loss of inhibition on behaviour that had been restrained.

“The circumcision disinhibition might cause men to abandon previous risk reduction behaviours such as partner reduction or condom use. There are reports of local misperceptions that SMC is a magic bullet to prevent HIV, a belief that is likely to inhibit safe sex practices,” it stated.

The report added that the preference for traditional circumcision among some ethnic groups, such as the Bamasaba and the Bakakonjo, is affecting government efforts to scale up SMC. SMC is medically carried out under hygienic conditions to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, which are risk factors in traditional circumcision.
...

Myths abound. “There are many misconceptions and myths which surround this intervention. It’s also [a] frightening procedure. Men think of the risks involved, the pain and how long it will take them to heal,” added Sarah Kayagi, the chairperson of Uganda’s HIV/AIDS parliamentary committee. “Some women don’t want their husbands circumcised on grounds that they will become sexually weaker… Some think it’s meant to convert people to Islam."

[Not to mention - never to mention - that men may refuse to be circumcised because they know the value of their foreskins and that the claimed benefits are insufficient to justify it.]
...