News & Events

Updated recommendations on tetanus vaccination, published in a position paper in the Weekly Epidemiological Record of the World Health Organization (WHO) on 10 February 2017, address a gap in immunity among boys and men identified in part through safety monitoring... more

Uganda has registered a drastic decline in the number of voluntary medical male circumcisions (VMMCs) performed, from 900,000 procedures conducted annually in the past years to 556,000 in 2015, The Monitor reports. The manager of the Ministry of Health’s (MOH’s) AIDS control programme is quoted as saying that the reduction came after the government began giving VMMC clients two... more

Educating religious leaders about how voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) helps prevent HIV infection increased the number of men being circumcised in Tanzania, a study published in The Lancet has found. The intervention consisted of a one-day seminar co-taught by a... more

A modelling study suggests that achieving scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) as well as UNAIDS’ 90-90-90 HIV testing and treatment targets would result in even greater reductions in new HIV infections, Aidsmap reports.... more

Lower historical rates of male circumcision were associated with higher HIV-2 prevalence in West African cities from 1985, a study published in the open-access journal PLoS One has found. The cities with higher male circumcision rates in 1950 tended to have lower HIV-2... more

Religious and cultural beliefs compete with messages about the purpose of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), affecting men’s decisions about whether to get circumcised, a Ugandan study found. News 24 reports that only about 20 percent of Ugandan men practice traditional male circumcision. In areas where circumcision is not a tradition, such as the fishing communities around Lake... more

Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) services help men access healthcare earlier and link them to treatment when health problems are identified, according to an article published by Bhekisisa. The article describes one... more

In preparation for an initiation season likely to involve more than 40,000 South African boys, the Eastern Cape Province’s legislature passed a law to make traditional circumcision safer, Dispatch Live reports. Under the new Cultural Male Circumcision bill, which is expected to be signed during the season, only boys ages 18 and older may participate in the initiation rite. The... more

Register now to join a webinar on Monday, 7 November, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. (EST) to learn about the new VMMC In-Service Communication Best Practices Guide and how to use it to improve counselling and other communication with clients of voluntary medical male circumcision programmes. Please... more

The articles in a special PLoS collection of modelling studies offer insights on how to enhance the impact and cost-effectiveness of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC programmes), says a senior USAID advisor in a PLoS blog. In an... more

By reaching more than 1 million men, Kenya’s voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programme has already prevented tens of thousands of HIV infections, modeling studies suggest. Medpage Today reports that the results of three different mathematical modelling studies agree that the 1.2 million circumcisions performed under Kenya’s VMMC programme from 2008 to 2015 averted an... more

Experiences in scaling up VMMC and other HIV prevention interventions offer important lessons for efforts to introduce new prevention technologies, Aidsmap reports in an article about presentations made at the HIV Research for Prevention conference, which was held ... more

Tanzania’s voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programme has reached 98 percent of eligible men and boys in the priority regions of Iringa and Njombe, reports Borgen Magazine. To sustain that achievement, the programme continues to circumcise thousands of clients per month. The use of GIS technology helps programme managers make strategic decisions about where to offer VMMC... more

A webinar on 27 October 2016 will officially launch a PLoS One collection of articles on new mathematical models for strategic planning in voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programmes. The two-hour programme will begin at 8 a.m. EST. For more information on the programme, see this... more

What does HIV prevention mean to you? Write it on your hand, take a photo or video, and share it. 

In a nine-week campaign leading up to World AIDS Day 2016, UNAIDS explores different aspects of HIV prevention and encourages people to express their views on what needs to be done to strengthen prevention efforts. This week’s focus is on condoms, an efficient and cost-... more