The World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNPAID) contend that in the next 20 years male circumcision, if successfully adopted, will prevent 5.7 million new cases of HIV infection in the Sub Saharan region alone.
As much as this appears to be good news to concerned stakeholders, it could also be a sickening development considering that the exercise is being done without the right accompanying message of caution. There is alarming fear in among the youth especially in remote areas that the intended outcomes of the campaign may not be realised because of government’s mediocrity in sensitizing the beneficiaries on the actual role male circumcision has in reducing HIV transmission.
The cultural bias coupled with some religious beliefs such as Islam has made male circumcision inevitably acceptable and attractive to many men in the country. However, the threat is that the intended audience is being furnished with information that could dangerous lead to creation of a false sense of security against the scourge of STIS including HIV and AIDS among the students. However, it appears that concerned stakeholders have not clearly defined the role male circumcision will make towards the HIV privation strategy. The manifestation of this syndrome can be observed through spread of myths and misconceptions about the value attached to male circumcision. For instance, many young people are wooed to undergo the operation simply because they would be sexually active as well as immune to any Sexually Transmitted Infections including HIV.
Some young people have been misled up to the point substituting the use of condoms, abstinence and fidelity with male circumcision, as a preventive method. The problem is that there is no message of counsel on the rationale for male circumcision apart from the romanticised and purported manhood benefits that prompt students to be circumcised. Consequently, many students are viewing male circumcision as a replacement for all HIV preventive strategies.
The manner in which the awareness campaign is being, and has been handled by relevant stakeholders leaves a lot to be desired. If left unchecked, Malawi should strongly anticipate a surprise surge in the HIV transmission and prevalence rate especially among young people undergoing circumcision as a surety to HIV contraction.
Should young people—most of whom are tudents—have their penile-foreskin chopped, and left free to experiment with unprotected sex? Ideally, most students in secondary schools are in their adolescent period with a huge urge to trying new things of which sexuality ranks high. To this end, many students who have little information regarding the merits of circumcision are driven to try-out sex in the belief that they are immune to any STIs by virtue of being circumcised.
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| https://www.aidsmap.com photo |
These kinds of misconceptions need to be cleared if at all the increasing number of circumcised men is going to be a blessing to the country’s efforts against reducing HIV contraction and Transmission. On March 28, 2007, the World Health organization (WHO) and the joint United Nations Programme on HIV /AIDS also cautioned that HIV prevention programmes and policies should recognize male circumcision as an additional, important strategy to prevent men from acquiring HIV from female partners, but not as a guarantee for complete protection. Therefore, the government and all concerned stakeholders behind the male-circumcision adoption campaign should include this warning in their campaigns.
Unless the myths and misconceptions that have mushroomed are checked, the male circumcision campaign will backfire. The increase in young men going for circumcision would turn as a curse, erasing gains we already realised from the relentless efforts of promoting the use of abstinence, condoms and faithfulness.
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