Rwanda may delay male circumcision

HEALTH - Chances of Rwanda delaying to start mass male circumcision as a way of reducing the spread of HIV/Aids are high, it is emerging. A cabinet minister said the country lacks logistics to kick start the exercise and has no policy in place to guide the implementers. Dr Innocent Nyaruhirira, State minister for HIV/Aids and other epidemics added that the country also lacks enough surgeons to carry out the exercise. Adding that Rwanda has limited theaters and yet the few that are operational are over crowded with a small number of professional surgeons. “We are not necessarily discouraging circumcision, but our hospitals are also crowded. It can easily be too costly for us to just implement the general circumcision. That is why we need to come up with a policy first,” the minister said. He was however quick to add: “It has to be clear that circumcision just reduces the risk of contracting the virus but does not cure Aids.” Nyaruhirira also expressed his worries about the likely effects of circumcision, saying normally male circumcision is carried out ten days immediately after a child’s birth, but doing it at a later age involves high risks of too much bleeding after the operation is carried out. World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends male circumcision saying it reduces the risks of transmission of HIV/Aids Virus by around 60 percent. And last year, three groundbreaking studies conducted in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa found that male circumcision reduces a man’s risk of being infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Since then WHO has consistently called on policymakers to consider using male circumcision to prevent Aids spread. However, it has been alleged that some African countries and majority of western countries have to some extent been reluctant or rejected to implement the low-cost operation. The Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) Mike Leavitt announced that the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief would soon begin providing money for male circumcision programmes in some African countries in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV.Ends