07 Mar 2016

The Accelerated Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) which was launched in Maun six months ago has led to an increase in the uptake of the programme, Ngami District Health Management Team (DHMT) Hospital Specialist Dr Christopher Chembe has said.

In an interview with BOPA, Dr Chembe said the number of eligible males who turned up has increased after the launch of Accelerated SMC in 10th August 2015 by Ministry of Health in Maun.

“Our target before the Accelerated SMC was 641 per quarter and in the third quarter (October to December 2015) for the first time we hit the 100 percent mark as 660 males were circumcised,” he said.

Dr Chembe said the SMC turn up was very low in Ngamiland before the Accelerated SMC with SMC uptake percentages as low as five per cent in the first quarter.

“This rose to 68.1 per cent in the second quarter just a month into the accelerated SMC,” he said.

However, Dr Chembe pointed out that the impact of intervention programmes such as SMC was not immediate and it would take time to see the impact. 

He said although the number of people being circumcised has increased it was not satisfactory in overall.

Dr Chembe said their target was to circumcise 4000 eligible males in the six months of Accelerated SMC campaign.

However, he said only about 1100 eligible males were circumcised since the launch. 

“Although this number is far below our target, the absolute number of people circumcised has increased,” he said.

Dr Chembe noted that the increase in the number of people coming forward to be circumcised was evidence of an increase in the uptake of the programme by the community.

“The increased uptake has been definitely more during the Accelerated SMC campaign than before the campaign,” he said.

He attributed the low uptake of SMC to factors such as unsustainable demand creation and lack of transport and that a research to find out other factors which hinder the SMC campaign is yet to be done.

Furthermore Dr Chembe said the number of new infections or incidence of HIV in the district was about 4.76per year.

“At the moment the effect of SMC on HIV incidence in the district has not been determined as evaluation of the role of SMC in the community does take time,” he said.

He However, pointed out that review of worldwide evidence indicated that SMC was a proven and effective added strategy in the prevention of HIV transmission.

 SMC has been shown to reduce the transmission of HIV by as much as 60 per cent, he said.

The Accelerated SMC campaign targeted about 35 000 eligible men to be circumcised countrywide in six months. Ends