21 Feb 2016

The accelerated Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) campaign is expected to end this month.

Funded by the United States of America (USA) through the President Emergency Fund for AIDS RELIEF (PEPFAR), the campaign was supposed to reach 35 000 men aged 15-29 years nationwide.

The target for the greater Francistown area, North East and Tutume cluster was 7 000 men, but so far they have registered 2 378 men. In an interview, Dr Tebogo Mokgwane, the head of preventive Services, said the campaign has been beneficial as they were never able to reach such figures before.

He said he hoped companies could help in encouraging men to circumcise as part of their corporate social responsibility. 

Dr Mokgwane added that they have challenges of people who refuse to circumcise because they heard others say it was not safe. He said through counselling and being sensitised some end up doing it though the targeted age group was not coming at expected rates.

Furthermore, he said even though the campaign was for a short period, it has made a huge impact in communities, and that he believes more men would come forward as the campaign stop spots would be operational thereafter.

Dr Mokgwane said he hopes the administration would rule the fir continuation of the campaign, as  people were starting to understand the importance of being circumcised. He encouraged men to come forward and that any misconceptions and myths could be cleared by contacting health offices.

Meanwhile, in the fight against cervical cancer, which is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths for women in Botswana, the health sector adopted an approach, which is called ‘see and treat.’

The screening, which has been based at Nyangabwe Referral Hospital (NRH), has now been extended to Donga Clinic since the beginning of February and has already registered 50 screenings.

Dr Mokgwane said that the screening was being done with vinegar swipe and targets HIV positive women of ages 30-49 years although the screening was not for them only.

“Through this programme, people are screened and if there are signs of the cancer, then they will be treated immediately using cold treatment, whereby the lesion will be frozen off the cervix and the operation is highly effective,” he said.

He added that people would no longer have to wait for months for their results. Before test and treat was introduced, the pap smear screening was the commonly used and it took time for people to get their results.

Dr Mokgwane said this led to late screenings and late treatment, which in most cases led to deaths. which might have been avoided.

In their effort to sensitise people and encourage them to do the tests, they explained to them to use the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) in the clinics. Ends