19 Aug Medical Male Circumcision Trainings offered by JPS Africa
Background Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) reduces men’s risk of acquiring HIV through heterosexual intercourse by approximately 60%. As more men become circumcised, fewer will become infected with HIV. VMMC indirectly protects men’s female sexual partners from HIV, because HIV-negative men cannot infect their female sexual partners. However, for HIV-positive men, VMMC does not reduce their risk of transmitting HIV to their sexual partners. Furthermore, if men who are already HIV-positive become circumcised, it will not reverse their HIV-positive status. UNAIDS and PEPFAR have estimated that scaling up VMMC in men aged 15–49 years in 14 southern and eastern African countries will require 20.3 million circumcisions in five years in order to reach 80% coverage of the eligible population. Using this level of coverage over the next 15 years, mathematical modelling suggests there is the potential to avert up to 3.6 million new HIV infections and generate a potential cost...