The goal of 80 percent prevalence of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) in the 14 priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa must be achieved by 2020 as part of a fast-track strategy to ending the AIDS epidemic as a global public health threat by 2030, states a report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The report describes the strategy and what it will cost and provides “scorecards” for each country’s efforts. It points out that reaching the primary targets of 90 percent of people living with HIV knowing their status, 90 percent of people who know their status on antiretroviral treatment, and 90 percent of those on treatment having a suppressed viral load by 2030 would still leave 27 percent of people living with HIV with unsuppressed viral loads. Therefore, expanded investments in proven HIV prevention strategies such as VMMC “will be critical to hopes for ending the AIDS epidemic,” the report concludes.
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