Men to get the snip in fight against HIV
JOBURG- In a bid to curb the spread of HIV, the government is calling on men to undergo medical circumcision.
The government aims to medically circumcise one million men in the next year through its Medical Male Circumcision campaign, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said.
Speaking on World Aids Day, Motlanthe said that medical male circumcision had proven effective in the fight against HIV – which is said to reduce the risk of infection by 60 percent.
According to Motlanthe, once 80 percent of men had been medically circumcised, 500 000 new HIV infections and 100 000 deaths over the next decade would be prevented.
As part of the government’s HIV prevention campaign, it also re-launched the HIV counselling and testing programme. Since the programme was initially launched in 2010, 20 million South Africans had been tested for HIV and know their status.
Motlanthe noted that in 2012, President Jacob Zuma announced that all HIV positive pregnant women and all HIV and TB co-infected patients would begin ARV treatment at a CD4 count of 350 and less.
In addition, all infants who were HIV positive would started ARV treatment. As a result, more than 200 000 new patients had begun ARV treatment since April 2012.
According to Motlanthe, the campaigns had also yielded a significant reduction in the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child.
He added that between April and September, 20 000 pregnant women began ARV treatment – 5 000 more than the number of pregnant women during the same period in 2012.
According to Statistics SA’s 2013 statistical release, South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV and AIDS, estimated to be about 5.4 million.
South Africa also has one of the largest HIV and Aids treatment programmes with 2.4 million people on treatment, according to the presidency.
