News & Events

A full package of effective HIV prevention interventions must be offered to people taking part in HIV prevention trials under new guidance from UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO), Aidsmap reports. The guidance clarifies that researchers must... more

With new HIV targets for 2025, UNAIDS aims to put the world back on track to end AIDS as a public health problem by 2030, Avert reports. Despite large increases in the numbers of people accessing HIV testing and treatment, the 2020 global HIV goals were not met, with efforts to increase the use of prevention methods such as pre-exposure prophylaxis and voluntary medical male circumcision... more

New modelling shows the COVID-19 pandemic should not be a reason for delaying the 2030 deadline for ending AIDS as a public health threat, UNAIDS reports. The modelling study assessed the impact of potential pandemic-related service disruptions, including less HIV treatment uptake and no voluntary medical male circumcisions, for different time periods, from three months to two years. It found... more

VMMCs performed by nurses are safe and have become standard practice in most VMMC settings, the authors of a new systematic and policy review say in this... more

Health authorities and organisations conducting voluntary medical male circumcision in South Africa say the numbers of men and boys being medically circumcised have dropped dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, Spotlight reports. Provision of VMMCs and other elective surgeries was suspended during a nationwide COVID-related lockdown in March 2020. With the easing of the lockdown... more

More than 10 years of further evidence that voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention is having a substantial effect in real-world settings guided the development of new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, according to a news release. The updated VMMC guidelines present the latest evidence on the impact and cost-effectiveness of continuing VMMC services as part of... more

As South Africa went into a coronavirus lockdown in March, non-emergency procedures such as voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) were stopped. Many of the organisations providing VMMC services began supporting COVID-19 screening and testing, and their teams quickly saw a need to apply lessons from their HIV prevention experience. In a... more

Measures to prevent COVID-19 have slowed down Zimbabwe’s voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programme, the Chronicle reports. To avert new HIV infections, the country’s Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) aims to circumcise about 400,000 men in 2020. As of April 2020, however, only 37,060 men had been circumcised. The director of the HIV, AIDS and TB Unit in the MOHCC is... more

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Project ECHO are hosting a weekly webinar series about infection prevention and control (IPC) in the context of COVID-19 every Thursday through 6 August 2020 from 9:00–10:30 a.m. EDT and from 12:00–1:30 p.m. CST. Speakers from CDC, the World Health Organization, and... more

HIV prevention services are among those most disrupted by restrictions designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa, reports Open Democracy and the Mail & Guardian. In 24 interviews conducted by Open Democracy, an independent global media organisation, health workers and sex workers in Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda... more

The Council of Traditional Leaders of South Africa has cancelled this year’s winter initiation season over fears about the potential for COVID-19 to spread quickly among initiates, HeraldLIVE reports. The institutions’ national executive committee unanimously agreed on the cancellation after consulting with the leaders of the cultural committees that practice the customary rite of passage in... more

Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention was highlighted in 21 abstracts during the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), which was held virtually from 8 to 11 March 2020.

VMMC was highlighted in an opening session lecture about translating HIV science into public health impact, a plenary talk about lessons from recent trials... more

In less than 10 minutes, you can complete a survey collecting data to guide protection of the health and safety of health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed by an international group of experts convened by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, this survey... more

Disruptions in HIV services resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to as many as 673,000 extra AIDS-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of next year, POZ reports. Modeling experts assembled by the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) analysed the effects of potential reductions in access to HIV treatment, viral load... more

One of the South African communities hardest hit by HIV, the town of Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, has begun to turn the tide against the epidemic. A pilot project begun by the international nongovernmental organization Médicins Sans Frontières in 2011 included a massive distribution of free condoms, promotion of adult medical male circumcision, a schools scheme, outreach to community leaders and... more