Malawi is one of the countries in the Southern Africa that is slow to act on the World Health Organisations recommendations of March 2007. WHO and UNAIDS gave green light for the use of male circumcision for HIV prevention, after study findings in Uganda, Kenya and South AFrica showed that it could reduce the risk of infection.
The Malawi government has yet to take its stand on circumcision.
The delay in coming in the open on circumcision according to one health expert, Dr Crissy Kaponda is that the government through Kamuzu College of Nursing and College of Medicine is doing research first in the districts where most initiation ceremonies take place to find out the potential impact. The research will take 3 years and right now they are in the second year of the study.
My worry now is not about the reseacrh but on the length of the study. There are some young people in Salima playing around with women, and even young girls, having unprotected sex. They tell girls and women that they cannot contract the virus.
Dr Kelita Kamoto, Head of HIV/AIDS Unit, said this whole idea of circumcision is only good for men what about women? She emphasizes that the men who are circumcized should also use a condom. Circumcision is not equal to no HIV. Dr Kaponda says some of the findinds so far in Mangochi, are that even the men who were circumcized are HIV postive so that just proves that circumcision is not an effective prevention measure.
So what about abale anga kumudziko omwe sakudziwa zeni zeni abadikirabe kuti research ya KCN ndi College of Medicine ithe? Does the government fear that people will be excited and mess with women?
Food for thought
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If circumcision thwarted AIDS, would the US have three times the AIDS problem Europe has, even though most sexually males in the US ARE circumcised and Europe is mostly intact?
AIDS is more rare in non-cutting Japan than it is in 95%-cut Israel.
The African nations of Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, among others, have markedly higher HIV infection rates among the circumcised.
Virgin African boys were found more likely to already HAVE HIV if they had been circumcised.
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