Making progress in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programme has made strides despite the failure to reach its target, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reports. Beginning in 2009, the programme sought to provide VMMC services to 1.3 million men ages 15 to 29. As of September 2015, 500,000 men had been circumcised. The World Health Organization’s regional director for communicable diseases, speaking at the 18th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, said that Zimbabwe’s efforts are beginning to bear fruit. The ZBC reports that some communities in Zimbabwe that have a custom of traditional circumcision now prefer medical male circumcision (ZBC, 5 December 2015).