adminTHERE is strong evidence that male circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men in high-risk populations. Faced with a situation where the Aids pandemic remains a cause for concern, it is only plausible for everyone to stand against it in every way they can. It remains a fact that the epidemic carries a feminine face but it is equally important that men help the women out by getting circumcised so as to reduce the rate of new HIV infections or re-infections.
More women are affected and infected by Aids than men are.
Though the youths are the windows of hope in Zimbabwe and any other developing country, it is disheartening that the rate of HIV prevalence in girls and young women is alarming and a cause for concern.
It is important therefore for men to get circumcised because they at least help in reducing the transmission of HIV.
Research has shown that countries with low male circumcision have the highest HIV prevalence rates.
Worldwide, only 30 percent of men are circumcised and this shows that men still have a lot of work to do in doing their part in reducing the rate at which HIV and Aids is transmitted.
Though male circumcision does not provide complete protection against HIV, it goes a long way in making a change in as far as HIV is concerned and because it does not provide complete protection, it should not replace proven safe-sex methods but complement them as part of the comprehensive package.
Although at first glance male circumcision may not be the most obvious entrée to get people talking about gender equality, it may be helpful to look at it that way.
It is everyone’s duty, male and female to fight towards an Aids-free generation and getting circumcised for men is a way to show their support of this vision.
According to the National AIDS Council, part of Zimbabwe’s HIV Prevention Strategy is to circumcise 80 percent of the 13-29 age groups of men, something which equates to about 1,3 million males.
NAC hopes that this will avert 600 000 new infections in Zimbabwe.
Studies have shown that men who have undergone MMC, which results in the complete removal of the foreskin, are 60 percent less likely to contract HIV when engaging in heterosexual intercourse with an HIV-positive partner.
As such, the World Health Organisation and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids both advocate male circumcision as an important strategy in the prevention of HIV infection in areas where HIV is transmitted primarily via heterosexual intercourse and where there is a high prevalence of HIV along with a low prevalence of male circumcision.
Some of the men we interviewed concerning male circumcision were sharing in this vision and most of them claimed to have already been circumcised.
“Male circumcision is an opportunity to engage men on sexual reproductive health. That means they get the chance to engage, to say they must reduce their sexual partners, use condoms correctly and consistently, and always seek consent before sex,” said one bank teller from a local bank.
Some of the women were asking why we were interviewing them about the issue of male circumcision because to them, male circumcision has nothing to do with them.
But just as the issue of HIV and Aids has become the talk of the day, so should issues to do with its prevention.
Women have to understand male circumcision because if one’s partner does it, they must stand by his side.
Take for instance the common precaution that, if he is circumcised, you can’t have intercourse for the six weeks healing period.
Issues of gender inequality remain, especially on who decides when to have sex, whom to have sex with, and how to have sex.
These health-related decisions are still mostly on men’s authority and men’s power.
Bringing a gender dimension to the issue of male circumcision means encouraging men to do couples testing before circumcision, making sure that they come to the procedure with their partners so their partners can support them during the healing period, and opening up discussion around these matters.
HIV and Aids is a reality and women and men should take it up to themselves to fight the pandemic.
Zimbabwe is a developing country and it needs the economically active population, therefore everyone involved should keep in mind that the nation needs them in order to develop.
Online Reporter