The number of men who received voluntary medical male circumcision services (VMMC) in Zimbabwe increased by about 80 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, The Chronicle reports. Data released by the National AIDS Council show that 151,037 men were circumcised in 2021, up from 82,060 in 2020. VMMC uptake had declined in 2020 and 2021 due to service disruptions caused by the COVID-19... more
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It was his day off, but Henry Chimtengo, a clinical assistant at Malombe Health Centre in Malawi’s Mangochi District, had just performed four voluntary medical male circumcisions. “I couldn’t turn away the boys and the parents accompanying them,” he writes. “I live at the health centre and my door is always open. Besides, I’m glad my message has got across to the community — male circumcision... more
Registration is open for a 22 May webinar on approaches to sustaining voluntary medical... more
A World AIDS Day speech from Zimbabwe’s Vice President said the country has achieved several milestones and is on track to reach the 95-95-95 percent targets for HIV testing, treatment, and viral suppression by 2025, The Herald reports. Zimbabwe recently met the 2020 targets of 90% of people living with HIV knowing their status, 90% of those with an HIV diagnosis receiving treatment,... more
People living with HIV in communities with universal access to HIV testing and treatment were 10% more likely to be employed than those receiving care according to national guidelines, a randomised study in rural Kenya and Uganda has shown. They were also 10% less likely to seek health care and 13% less likely to spend money on health care, and their children were 7% more likely to complete... more
As the use of antiretroviral treatment and adoption of voluntary medical male circumcision increased, fewer adolescents were orphaned, a study in Uganda’s Rakai region found. The proportion of adolescents who had lost one or both parents fell from 52% in 2007, when VMMC was introduced, to 23% in 2018. During that time, ART use by people living with HIV rose from 0–30% to 78–93% and male... more
A systematic review of studies conducted in Africa from 2010 to 2020 sought to understand what makes a heath intervention acceptable to adolescents and young people in a region where 360 million people are ages 15 to 24, The Conversation reports. The authors identified 55 studies evaluating 60 interventions, including voluntary medical male circumcision, pre-exposure prophylaxis, and other HIV... more
Forty years after HIV was first described, about 4,000 people acquire the virus each day, and most of them are young people, News24 reports. Girls and young women ages 15–24 account for 63% of all new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Although boys and young men are relatively less affected compared to their female peers, 1.94 million of them are living with HIV worldwide. To achieve the... more
After 13 years of progress, voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programmes lost ground due to COVID-19-related service disruptions, News24 reports. South Africa, which has been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, had achieved almost 60% VMMC coverage among men and boys ages 15 to 49 by 2020. In 2020, however, only 452,000 VMMC procedures were performed in South Africa... more
Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) is among the HIV interventions that will be supported by a US$90.4-million contribution to Namibia’s HIV programme through the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for the fiscal year beginning in October 2021, New Era reports. In the last fiscal year, which ended in September 2021, the PEPFAR contributed US$89 million to... more
COVID-19 has severely set back efforts to control HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria as fewer people sought diagnosis and treatment, others were unable to access treatment, and public health resources were diverted to address the new pandemic, The New York Times reports. A... more
Only 17.4% of newborn male infants were circumcised in four Kenyan counties from 2014-2018, far short of the national goal of 40%, The Star reports. An analysis of health facility data from the four counties in Western Kenya where a pilot project on early infant male circumcision (EIMC) was conducted found that a mean of only 4.3 % of the facilities were offering the service. The... more
For the second year in a row, authorities in Limpopo and other South African provinces have put traditional initiation rites and medical male circumcisions (MMCs) on hold as they direct medical resources to respond to COVID-19, Health-E News reports. Health officials in Limpopo Province welcomed the postponement of initiation schools and said medical doctors in public and private... more
Male circumcision prevalence reached 90% among men and adolescent boys ages 15 to 24 in Malawi’s Chókwè District by 2019 but remained lower among older age groups, HealthDay News reports. Researchers analysed data from the Chókwè health and demographic surveillance system to assess progress toward the goal of 80% male circumcision prevalence by 2019 and published their findings in the... more