Kenya: VMMC contributes to HIV prevention

The introduction and scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) is one of several interventions that led to an impressive decline in new HIV infections in Kenya, writes one of the principal investigators for the 2018 Kenya Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (KENPHIA) in a reflection on the HIV response in his country. Dr. Peter Cherutich of Kenya’s Ministry of Health describes how, beginning in 2008, Kenya “quickly mobilised technical teams to expand one of the largest surgical interventions of our time,” reaching close to 1 million men with VMMC. KENPHIA 2018 found that the rate of new infections was 0.14%, down from 0.5% in 2012 (The Star, 20 March 2020).