220 000 circumcised by September 2015
Ministry of Health (MoH) says about 220 000 voluntary medical male circumcisions (VMMCs) were done by September 2015 with more males aged 10 to 15 being circumcised than those in the 15 to 45 age bracket.
MoH targets to circumcise 408 460 by the end of this year which means about 188 460 circumcisions need to be conducted in the remaining months.
In a written response to a questionnaire on Thursday, MoH spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said the overall target to be circumcised by the year 2020 is 2 458 727 and the targeted patrons are males from ages 10 to 34.
He said, nevertheless, those that are above the targeted age range have not been denied the services.
Giving statistics of the month-long VMMC MoH in collaboration with its partners conducted from July 20 to August 28, Chikumbe said higher figures of circumcised males during the campaign were registered in the districts of Mangochi, Machinga and Balaka.
He said the case could be largely attributed to cultural and religious influence in the three Eastern Region districts.
Chikumbe said Malawi has generally done well on VMMC as an estimated 50 percent of the targeted population has actually been circumcised in the initial seven districts of Lilongwe, Zomba, Blantyre, Mulanje, Thyolo, Phalombe, Chikwawa and Nkhotakota.
He said, at the moment, the campaign is being extended to 20 more districts and more partners are supporting the initiative.
He said: “We would like to emphasise that VMMC is only supplementary and does not aim to replace the already existing HIV prevention measures, namely the ABCs [abstinence, being faithful and condom use].”
In 2007, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended inclusion of VMMC in the national prevention plans in high-risk countries such as Malawi.
However, male circumcision is not new to Malawi as traditional circumcision is performed among several of Malawi’s ethnic groups, among them the Yao and the Lhomwe, as part of initiation ceremonies for young men.
If Malawi was a nation of thinkers who does not just follow things for the sake of it or just becoz some white guy has said it’s the right thing to do, they would have been taking statistics of those poor men and boys who are being circumcised in the name of AIDS prevention.
What the Malawi govt should have been doing is to make sure these men and boys are being tested for HIV before the circumcision and those who are found negative should be followed up, for the adults for the next 5 years and follow up the young boys 15 years to see it the this circumcision thing is working…….
In other countries where this kind of research on the impact of circumcision on AIDs prevention the results are shocking, stop wasting your manoy on this stupid idea.
Let me just remind all Malawians that HIV is so prevalent in the lake districts of Malawi where over 90% of men are circumcised,
I will leave the rest to you to decide whether you want to loose your foreskin in the name of HIV prevention or not……….