Circumcising more than One Million Men in Zimbabwe

By The World ⋅ October 10, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

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Zimbabwe is working to circumcise more than one million men, similar to other efforts underway in Africa like at this circumcision clinic at Siaya District Hospital in Kenya. (Photo: Andrea Crossan)

by Ish Mafundikwa

The southern African nation of Zimbabwe has launched a bold effort to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It aims to circumcise 1.2 million men in seven years.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, and circumcision has been shown to reduce a man’s risk of contracting the virus.

The country’s plan is especially ambitious given that Zimbabwe currently has just eight circumcision clinics. To achieve the intended goal, the clinics have had to make the process as efficient as possible.

“Initially, when we started, it was taking up to two hours” to circumcise each man, said Roy Dhlamini. He manages Zimbabwe’s circumcision program for the group Population Services International. “We’d see something like eight clients per day on average.”

That wasn’t fast enough. So Dhlamini and his team looked for ways to speed up the process.

“What this has resulted in is that a doctor, with support of his team or her team, can actually do between seven and ten clients in an hour,” he said.

A single clinic, in Harare, can now circumcise around 200 men per day.

On a recent day, one of those men was 28-year-old Tinashe Damba. “I heard that if you get circumcised, you have a better chance of not contracting the deadly HIV disease,” he said.

His turn came, and he went into the operating room with four other men. Inside the room, doctors worked as a team.

“One doctor anaesthetizes, the next doctor will do the procedure,” said Roy Dhlamini. “Whilst the other doctor is doing the procedure, you have someone doing the bandages.”

Nurses assist. Each health professional carries out a specific task like workers on an assembly line, although head nurse Fortune Nyahuye insists they don’t treat clients like gadgets on a conveyor belt.

“It’s not like we are doing this as a factory,” she said. “In every medical institution there are people who do certain things at certain stages.”

Just thirty minutes after he went into the operating room, Tinashe Damba walked out, smiling.

“During the operation I didn’t [feel] any pain,” he said, although he likely will feel pain when the anaesthetic wears off. He was expected to heal in about six weeks.

Nationwide, Zimbabwe is now circumcising about 350 men per day. Even at that rate, it will be impossible for the country to reach its goal of more than a million men by 2018, so Population Services International is rolling out mobile circumcision clinics and aims to open eleven new stationary clinics by the end of this year.

21 comments for “Circumcising more than One Million Men in Zimbabwe”

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKPPI3EW7AVRX42AGI6B6457EU Catherine

Unbelievable. My ears and brain are fried and horrified from hearing this segment. You folks at the World are usually pretty good at being well informed, but have totally dropped the ball on this one. ”Sure, circumcision is a great way to prevent AIDS, what with all the unprotected sex with HIV positive people I plan to be doing.”
Circumcision is Latin for GENITAL MUTILATION. We’ve only just gotten them to stop doing it to girls in Africa, and now we are pushing it on the men.
You are all going to hell.
Anonymous

It is simply despicable that nobody seems to be question the very notion of genital mutilation as a “preventative” measure for anything. Anybody wonder why there hasn’t been similar “studies” performed using female genital mutilation?

What would you all say? What would you all say if some “scientists” said “we have found that female circumcision reduces HIV transmission 60%!”

Would you all agree, then, that “we must circumcised one million women?”

Would you all then say “we need to circumcise the baby girls, because it’s easier?”

Is nobody going to question the blatant violation of basic human rights in the name of science that is happening here?

Isn’t medical science supposed to find newer, BETTER ways to combat disease? “Researchers” have been searching for an alibi for, specifically infant circumcision, at least over a century.

Children are not having sex, so they are at absolute ZERO risk for HIV transmission.

What’s more, if you look at hard data from other countries, you realize circumcision does not prevent anything.

Ask the “researchers” why HIV was more prevalent in circumcised men in 10 out of 18 African countries.

Ask them why, even though 80% of American men are circumcised, their HIV and STD rates are higher than in Europe, where circumcision is RARE.

The circumcision of healthy, non-consenting individuals is a gross human rights violation, and sooner or later this is going to be remembered as the scientific scandal of the century.

Absolutely despicable that human rights are being violated in the so-called name of medicine.

You would NEVER advocate for female circumcision, not even for so-called “protection.”

Simply disgusting.
Anonymous

Africans, know that the so-called “studies” are a fraud. Has anybody looked at the actual numbers? What that “60%” figure comes from?

They circumcised about 1000 men, and left 1000 men not circumcised, and only about 67 got HIV, 22 circumcised, and 47 non-circumcised. The “60%” is the difference between that subgroup of men. Taking ALL of the men who didn’t get HIV into account, the real difference was an insignificant 1.30 or so percent.

THAT’S why they’re rolling out “mass circumcision campaigns” and violating the rights of non-consenting children? Really?

Africans, WAKE UP! Circumcision doesn’t prevent anything. Only ABC works. Millions are being spent on NOTHING.

According to USAID, HIV was found to be prevalent in circumcised men in 10 out of 18 countries. Data around the world shows circumcision DOESN’T WORK.

80% of American men are circumcised, and yet, America has higher STD/HIV rates than Europe, where circumcision is rare.

These “studies” and these so-called “mass-circumcision campaigns” are a scientific scandal waiting to explode.

The circumcision of healthy, non-consenting children is a violation of basic human rights.

Science would NEVER justify doing the same in girls and women.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!

http://www.facebook.com/people/박종인/100003272664374 박종인

wow!~ I have already come!! surprise~!!http://youtu.be/zXKV78VERio

Anonymous

According to USAID, “there appears no clear pattern of association between male circumcision and HIV prevalence—in 8 of 18 countries with data, HIV prevalence is lower among circumcised men, while in the remaining 10 countries it is higher.”
http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/CR22/CR22.pdf

“Conclusions: We find a protective effect of circumcision in only one of the eight countries for which there are nationally-representative HIV seroprevalence data. The results are important in considering the development of circumcision-focused interventions within AIDS prevention programs.”
http://www.iasociety.org/Default.aspx?pageId=11&abstractId=2197431

Results: …No consistent relationship between male circumcision and HIV risk was observed in most countries.
http://apha.confex.com/apha/134am/techprogram/paper_136814.htm

The most obvious smoking gun is the USA. Circumcision hasn’t stopped HIV in our own country.
http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/1998/19981125_global_epidemic_report_en.pdf

And, it hasn’t stopped other STDs either.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/13/us-infections-usa-idUSTRE50C5XV20090113?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

In America, the majority of the male population is circumcised, approximately 80%, while in most countries in Europe, circumcision is uncommon. Despite these facts, our country does poorly.
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=419&Itemid=177

In fact, AIDS rates in some US Cities rival hotspots in Africa. In some parts of the U.S., they’re actually higher than those in sub-Saharan Africa. According to a 2010 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, rates of HIV among adults in Washington, D.C. exceed 1 in 30; rates higher than those reported in Ethiopia, Nigeria or Rwanda.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1000069

The Washington D.C. district report on HIV and AIDS reported an increase of 22% from 2006 in 2009. “[Washington D.C.'s] rates are higher than West Africa… they’re on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya,” according to Shannon L. Hader, HIV/AIDS Administration, Washington D.C., March 15, 2009. She once led the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work in Zimbabwe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/14/AR2009031402176.html

One would expect for there to be a lower transmission rates in the United States, and for HIV to be rampant in Europe; HIV transmission rates are in fact higher in the United States, where most men are circumcised, than in various countries in Europe, where most men are intact. It is telling that the HIV epidemic struck in our country in the 1980s, 90% of the male population was already circumcised. Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that what didn’t worked in our own country, or
anywhere else, is going to start working miracles in Africa.
Anonymous

According to USAID, “there appears no clear pattern of association between male circumcision and HIV prevalence—in 8 of 18 countries with data, HIV prevalence is lower among circumcised men, while in the remaining 10 countries it is higher.”
http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/CR22/CR22.pdf

“Conclusions: We find a protective effect of circumcision in only one of the eight countries for which there are nationally-representative HIV seroprevalence data. The results are important in considering the development of circumcision-focused interventions within AIDS prevention programs.”
http://www.iasociety.org/Default.aspx?pageId=11&abstractId=2197431

Results: …No consistent relationship between male circumcision and HIV risk was observed in most countries.
http://apha.confex.com/apha/134am/techprogram/paper_136814.htm

The most obvious smoking gun is the USA. Circumcision hasn’t stopped HIV in our own country.
http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/1998/19981125_global_epidemic_report_en.pdf

And, it hasn’t stopped other STDs either.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/13/us-infections-usa-idUSTRE50C5XV20090113?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

In America, the majority of the male population is circumcised, approximately 80%, while in most countries in Europe, circumcision is uncommon. Despite these facts, our country does poorly.
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=419&Itemid=177

In fact, AIDS rates in some US Cities rival hotspots in Africa. In some parts of the U.S., they’re actually higher than those in sub-Saharan Africa. According to a 2010 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, rates of HIV among adults in Washington, D.C. exceed 1 in 30; rates higher than those reported in Ethiopia, Nigeria or Rwanda.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1000069

The Washington D.C. district report on HIV and AIDS reported an increase of 22% from 2006 in 2009. “[Washington D.C.'s] rates are higher than West Africa… they’re on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya,” according to Shannon L. Hader, HIV/AIDS Administration, Washington D.C., March 15, 2009. She once led the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work in Zimbabwe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/14/AR2009031402176.html

One would expect for there to be a lower transmission rates in the United States, and for HIV to be rampant in Europe; HIV transmission rates are in fact higher in the United States, where most men are circumcised, than in various countries in Europe, where most men are intact. It is telling that the HIV epidemic struck in our country in the 1980s, 90% of the male population was already circumcised. Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that what didn’t worked in our own country, or
anywhere else, is going to start working miracles in Africa.
Anonymous

Is this report really true in this modern day in 2011? There we go again, the white knight on the horse coming to save the poor africans from themselfs. Are they trying to impose a certain culture on these people uder the guise the somehow circumcision can prevent AIDS? Why don’t they go to Sweden and preach that nonsense to them? Come on, people wake up and stop this human rights abuse, called MALE GENITAL MUTILATION. Trying to usurp the family bonds by getting mothers to mutilate their baby boys? These are the same people crying foul about female cicumcision. what gives women the right to mutilate boys? they don’t have a clue how boys feel. Listen to the wise man who said I was born like this and i want to keep it this way. What bogus medical literature say that male genital mutilation prevents AIDS. I don’t hear any campaign in the USA for this. And shame to the World program for reporting this as a feel good story without any opposite view. how IMPOTENT are these goverments in Zimbabwe and Botswana to accept this!..
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Shaffer/717284850 Joshua Shaffer

Vile, disgusting. This is not how you fight a disease. You don’t amputate normal and healthy tissue to prevent diseases EVEN if it DID stand a chance of protecting them. Much less so diseases taht are easily avoided through safe sex/condoms/abstinence. EDUCATE THEM. It’s cheaper AND it doesn’t hurt anyone. It also treats them with respect.

Don’t believe these Lies people of Africa. Cutting off parts of your genitals do NOT protect you from anything.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=611875418 Karen Kelly Glennon

We in America freaked out at the mandate a few states imposed that school aged girls get the Gardasil vaccine. Those in opposition totally rejected the intervention of medicine in what they perceived to be a matter of sex education and STD prevention for girls – something the parents wanted to undertake and not hand over to the schools and medical professionals. Imagine the outrage that parents would have at the idea that circumcision would reduce STDs for girls.
Why don’t we have this outrage when boys are undergoing surgical penis reduction – the removal of perfectly healthy, non-diseased, normal part of the penis of every male infant (save for the rare incidences of birth defects in this area)? How have we come to suggest amputation as the first course of treatment for a disease that has not manifest in a perfectly normal child? Circumcision of ANY child is a human rights violation. It is not health care.
Telling adult men that circumcision will prevent them from getting HIV will lead them to believe they are immune. I predict that the HIV rate will explode in circumcised men and their female partners after this horrendous campagin.
I want to know who funds these mutilation excursions?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Yeoman-Roman/100001500933449 Yeoman Roman

“I want to know who funds these mutilation excursions?”

Who? Bill Gates. American Doctors. American Jewish Doctors. They have pushed their “cultural practice” on Americans. The Victorians with their sexual prudery helped them initially, but now it’s Jewish and other circumcised doctors attempting to normalize their own sexual mutilation.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HJZDZBQGPNNQW6MHMS64TQSU2M K.B

This is an absolute tragedy. Circumcision is medical fraud. To see these Africans getting scammed by America, makes me feel ashamed to be an American.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HJZDZBQGPNNQW6MHMS64TQSU2M K.B

This is an absolute tragedy. Circumcision is medical fraud. To see these Africans getting scammed by America, makes me feel ashamed to be an American.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Yeoman-Roman/100001500933449 Yeoman Roman

A million men circumcised?

AS A JEW, I am offended by this. Yes, you heard me right.

I object to the industrialization of circumcision. This is the sort of scale and magnitude that the Germans applied to industrial sized genocide of my Jewish ancestors and other “undesirables”.

You are scaling up the war on foreskins. Industrial. Efficient. Naziesque, -all the way.

I know I have already lost this argument by “Godwin’s law” but there is just no nice way to say, you are sexual fascists. And you are. Cutting foreskins is an American tragedy, a historical error that is currently being fixed by informed Intactivists. It ruins sex and causes impotence. It does not protect from or cure anything. You want to help Africans in HIV fight? Circumcision is worthless, compared to condoms, family planning, preventing rape and scarification, and most importantly, clean water, education and a higher standard of living. Provide one or several of these, and you will save lives and make lives better.

I think it is striking that we have outsourced most manufacturing in this country. The one thing we do still export is death. Death in the form of creating wars. Death in exporting and providing munitions, so other people can kill other people, including us. And death in the form of sexual death, by exporting circumcision. We certainly can’t convince the better off Europeans that maiming their sexual organs is a good idea, but we can still put one over on the disadvantaged Africans. It is a travesty.

I would say that our culture of circumcision has born it’s ripest fruit so far.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Yeoman-Roman/100001500933449 Yeoman Roman

A million men circumcised?

AS A JEW, I am offended by this. Yes, you heard me right.

I object to the industrialization of circumcision. This is the sort of scale and magnitude that the Germans applied to industrial sized genocide of my Jewish ancestors and other “undesirables”.

You are scaling up the war on foreskins. Industrial. Efficient. Naziesque, -all the way.

I know I have already lost this argument by “Godwin’s law” but there is just no nice way to say, you are sexual fascists. And you are. Cutting foreskins is an American tragedy, a historical error that is currently being fixed by informed Intactivists. It ruins sex and causes impotence. It does not protect from or cure anything. You want to help Africans in HIV fight? Circumcision is worthless, compared to condoms, family planning, preventing rape and scarification, and most importantly, clean water, education and a higher standard of living. Provide one or several of these, and you will save lives and make lives better.

I think it is striking that we have outsourced most manufacturing in this country. The one thing we do still export is death. Death in the form of creating wars. Death in exporting and providing munitions, so other people can kill other people, including us. And death in the form of sexual death, by exporting circumcision. We certainly can’t convince the better off Europeans that maiming their sexual organs is a good idea, but we can still put one over on the disadvantaged Africans. It is a travesty.

I would say that our culture of circumcision has born it’s ripest fruit so far.
Anonymous

hey I’ve got an idea, my own research shows the no sex means no AIDS transmission so we should remove all penises.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YZLVZBAB4P6XRGZD3UYVCQPUC4 DM

Absolutely That this is going on in Africa. With all the data here in the US that shows CLEARLY circumcision does not prevent HIV transmission, but worse yet, THE WORLD.ORG would actually put a segment out there on this with information that is so far wrong. I Implore The World.org to please, go back and do some research on this subject, and report back what you find. I am SURE you will find out what a great travesty is being brought upon the people of Africa that are falling for this pure bunk. Start with the AAP (American Association of Pediatrics) which in 1999 no longer recommends routine infant circumcision.
Tom Tobin

OK. Let’s take a different tactic. Let’s pretend that circumcision did something, other than to amputate a significant portion of the skin of the male genitalia.
The US would have shown a significant drop in infections of some kind, when its circumcision rate was close to 90%. The same would have been true for Canada, and Australia, and New Zealand. One would expect to see a corresponding rise in infections, now that circumcision is no longer popular in those last three countries.
Neither has happened. Meaning, the absence or presence of a foreskin does almost nothing to the infection rate.
All I can say to Zimbabweans, is “a fool and his foreskin are soon parted”.
Condoms protect both partners. You get to keep all of your body.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Yeoman-Roman/100001500933449 Yeoman Roman

Nazi doctors experimented on “inferior” Jews.

American doctors experiment on “inferior” Blacks.

Both do things to “others” they would never do to “their own people” because it would be “unethical”.

I am ashamed of my country and the doctors who perpetuate this.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Tobin/100002305575078 Tom Tobin

Want to hear a little conspiracy theory?
The World Health Organization has thrown its full weight behind the drive to circumcise.
Doesn’t it seem a little odd, that none of the rest of the world thinks those 3 studies in South Africa were truly valid…they weren’t finished, the men self-reported their circumcision status, etc, etc.
Guess what. Dr. David Tomlinson, the man who “serves” as the WHO’s expert on circumcision, coincidentally invented the “improved” Gomco clamp, the “improved” Plastibell, and the “improved” Accu-circ, That may possibly mean that he gets royalties for every one of these clamps sold in Africa.
Kind of boggles the imagination. “I’ve always been a mad scientist type,” he says.
http://todayshospitalist.com/index.php?b=articles_read&cnt=647

I wonder if the French are looking for an “improved” guillotine?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Yeoman-Roman/100001500933449 Yeoman Roman

And no response from the broadcaster of this segment. Totally unimpressive.
http://www.facebook.com/people/박종인/100003272664374 박종인

wow!~ I have already come!! surprise~!!http://youtu.be/zXKV78VERio

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