ACHAP Supports Advocacy Initiatives on Male Circumcision

The Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care (BCIC) unit of the Ministry of Health with support from ACHAP held a one day workshop on May 26th 2009 at the Gaborone International Convention Centre to brief the Men Sector about Safe Male Circumcision as an add on strategy for HIV prevention in an effort to work towards country's vision of No New Infections By 2016? The objectives of the workshop were (i) To share facts on safe male circumcision with men sector,(ii) To update the men sector on progress made during the preparation for scaling up of safe male circumcision and lastly (ii) To solicit support from the men sector for the SMC strategy.

The workshop was attended by some senior members of the Botswana Police service, the Botswana Defence Forces, the Prisons Service and Men Sector committee chairpersons.. Presiding over deliberations of the workshop, MoH Information Education and Communications (IEC) officer Mr Jonathan Moalosi informed the participants about the multimedia campaign that is going on about Male Circumcision and urged them to further help to disseminate accurate information on HIV prevention especially the new MC strategy in an effort to arrest the situation. In her welcoming remarks Dr K. Seipone, the Director, HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care called for more and new prevention methods saying that any idea should be inclusive in a comprehensive response to increase efforts aimed at addressing the spread of HIV/AIDS?.

She noted that advocacy should be done from an informed perspective and it should be stressed that SMC offers partial protection against HIV infection, therefore, abstinence, being faithful and condomizing are still playing a leading role in HIV prevention. Furthermore she highlighted that if 80% of the male population were circumcised, this would have a significant effect on HIV in the general population.

The STI Coordinator Dr Hussein presented the SMC strategy to the participants and said MC is not a new surgical procedure, it goes back to ancient times, and it is not new to Botswana. She stressed that SMC is an add on strategy, it does not substitute the existing ABC prevention methods and must not be taken as a natural condom; hence the need to disseminate correct messages to the public. She noted that the initiative was recommended by WHO after the randomised studies in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda showed evidence of significant protection amongst men. WHO therefore recommended that countries with high HIV prevalence and low MC prevalence should consider MC as an add on strategy for HIV prevention.

She also presented the objectives of the strategy which among others include; contributing to the reduction of HIV infection rates by scaling up SMC to reach MC prevalence of 80% among 0-49 years in HIV negative males by 2012. Dr Hussein also informed the workshop that SMC will be guided by principles from WHO. ACHAP Prevention manager Mr Benjamin Binagwa discussed the role played by ACHAP in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Botswana and emphasized ACHAP's commitment to scaling up new initiatives like SMC to strengthen prevention interventions in the country. He assured the participants that ACHAP is very committed to supporting the Ministry of Health with implementation of the SMC strategy.