Increased uptake of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) and other HIV prevention measures was one of the benefits of an HIV self-testing initiative now being expanded to South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho, IOL News reports. In South Africa, more than 2 million test kits will be distributed to improve access to HIV testing and increase the percentage of people who are aware of... more
News & Events
Bill and Melinda Gates praise Kenya’s voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programme and recent rollout of pre-exposure prophylaxis in a new report, The Star reports. In Goalkeepers 2017, the first in a series of annual reports on progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,... more
Traditional leaders were hailed for their support of medical male circumcision at a graduation ceremony for young Tshangani initiates in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe, The Chronicle reports. More than 2,400 Tshangani men and boys were circumcised in one-and-a-half months as part of a traditional initiation programme; a local member of Parliament also became circumcised. Tshangani doctors and... more
Local champions and mapping software are helping a nongovernmental organization reach more men with voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), Bhekisisa reports. The HIV nonprofit Right to Care used specially designed software to plot VMMC uptake against the number of men eligible for circumcision in an area and the local health facilities providing VMMC services. Working with community... more
Swaziland has almost reached the 90-90-90 goals for HIV testing, treatment, and viral suppression set for 2020, Medpage Today reports. Nationally representative household surveys found that in 2016, almost 85 percent of Swazi adults had been tested for HIV, more than 87 percent of those who had tested positive were on antiretroviral therapy (ART), and nearly 92 percent of those on ART... more
Women who reported that their most recent male sex partner was circumcised were less likely to have HIV and genital herpes than women whose last partner was not circumcised in a study in South Africa, Aidsmap reports. This study, which was presented at the 9th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV... more
Among South African men tested for HIV before voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), the proportion testing positive increases with age, reports the Cape Times News. A study presented at the Eighth Annual South Africa AIDS Conference in Durban on 13 June found that the percentage of VMMC clients services who tested positive for HIV increased at age 22 and rose sharply among... more
Well-known local actors and musicians have joined a nationwide campaign by the Community Media Trust to promote voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) in South Africa, Independent Online reports. The “Man Up” campaign aims to debunk myths about the procedure and encourage men to become circumcised as an additional protective measure against HIV, other sexually transmitted... more
The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) had supported 11.7 million VMMC procedures by the end of 2016, approaching the 2017 goal of 13 million. Appendix L of PEPFAR’s 2017... more
New modelling studies published in a PLoS collection assess the effects of focusing VMMC programmes on narrower client age groups and specific geographic areas. The studies are assisting decision makers in making more informed decisions about... more
June’s winter initiation season will be the first test of a law designed to improve the safety of traditional male circumcision in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, Dispatch Live reports. These changes to the Customary Male Initiation Practice Act passed the provincial legislature unanimously and were signed into law in May. The new law requires registration of traditional... more
The annual rate of new HIV infections has fallen by 42 percent over the past four years ― from 1.17 percent to 0.66 percent ― in one of the most-studied groups of people in Africa, Aidsmap reports. Speaking at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2017) in Seattle, Washington,... more
Three large studies in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya have found no evidence that men who have been circumcised engage in riskier sexual behaviour compared to uncircumcised men, Aidsmap reports. The studies examined self-reported behaviours, including condom use and number of sexual partners, to assess whether men adopted riskier sexual behavior after becoming circumcised. Such “... more