News & Events

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

Getting circumcised reduced men’s risk of acquiring human papillomavirus (HPV) in a randomized clinical trial in Kisumu, Kenya, reports Gillings School News of the University of North Carolina. The trial, which was... more

The benefits of continuing to provide HIV services during the COVID-19 pandemic far outweigh the risk of additional COVID-19-related deaths, a mathematical modelling study has found. The analysis, which was supported by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO), shows that maintaining HIV services would avert 19 to 146 AIDS-related deaths per 10,000 people over 50 years, compared with 0.... more

Zimbabwe has reached the 90–90–90 targets set by UNAIDS for 2020 — 90% of people knowing their HIV status, 90% of those diagnosed with HIV on antiretroviral treatment, and 90% of those receiving treatment achieving viral suppression — and is working toward the 95–95–95 targets for 2025, The Herald reports. The chief executive officer of the National AIDS Council is quoted as... more

Home-based testing and universal treatment for HIV are cost-effective and can reduce new infections in high-prevalence communities, according to a modelling study published in The Lancet Global Health. The modellers analysed data from PopART, a major study of... more

About 26,000 new HIV infections have been prevented among Zambian men due to uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) since 2007, the Zambia Daily Mail reports. In a speech he read for the Minister of Health at the virtual launch of the VMMC National Operational Plan for 2021-2025, the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services announced that more than 3... more

A rapid response to adapt services to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines enabled the Tohara Plus team to provide voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) services to more than 186,000 men and boys in four northern regions of Tanzania in 2020. The project, which is led by IntraHealth and funded by the U.S. President’s Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and... more

Communities in some parts of Zambia have long practiced traditional circumcision as a rite of passage for young men, but interest in male circumcision performed by medical practitioners is growing, Xinhua News reports. The article, based on interviews conducted with men in Lusaka and Central Province,... more