06 Jun 2014

The Ministry of Health is satisfied with the performance and progress made regarding the Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) project. 

SMC national coordinator, Mr Condrad Ntsuape said in an interview that currently the exercise was at 35 per cent, noting that 80 per cent was the set target by 2016. 

He said this 35 per cent translates to 132 696 men aged 15-29 years who have already been circumcised.

Mr Ntsuape said this was a success story to tell even though the main key challenge was the low turn-up. “It has not been easier to get men to come for circumcision,” he said. 

He said a meeting of stakeholders that will include ACHAP, WHO, and the media, will be called in the near future to present the results of the roll-out on SMC and map the way forward.

Mr Ntsuape said the Ministry of Health was still getting the financial support from the United States through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for the programme.

The SMC strategy aims to aggressively scale up male circumcision as part of the national prevention strategy against HIV and AIDS spread in Botswana.

The strategy is to compliment already existing strategies in order to achieve the national vision of no new HIV infections by 2016.

The need for the national strategy to scale up Male Circumcision (MC) is imperative and has become clear in light of recent research findings in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda that demonstrated reduction of HIV infections among circumcised males by 50 - 60 per cent. Ends