AIDS experts call for mass circumcision in South Africa

AIDS experts have called for a mass circumcision programme in South Africa, condemning a “deafening silence” from policy makers since studies revealed it sharply cut infection rates.

As scientists this week questioned a lack of movement on using male circumcision as a preventative method, delegates at South Africa’s national Aids conference called for the rollout of a mass programme of circumcision.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organisation recommended the procedure after three studies in Africa showed it reduced chances of contracting HIV by up to 60%.

But although countries such as Kenya, Malawi, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania have drawn up plans for widespread circumcision, the South African government has done nothing to date.

“I think by now I would support people starting to think about a mass circumcision campaign,” said Neil Martinson of the Perinatal HIV/Aids research unit.

Mr Martinson said concerns over whether South Africans thought it was a culturally acceptable practice that would lead to risky sexual behaviour were not proven to be valid.

“In South Africa, high proportions of men and women find it acceptable to be circumcised, people (in the studies) weren’t going around and sleeping around more because they didn’t have a foreskin.”

With an Aids vaccine still many years away, the focus has turned to HIV prevention and the conference aims to build consensus about ways to do this.

“I am surprised there is no action on male circumcision. Where are the male activists? Studies show a 60% reduction (in risk) but there is silence,” said Glenda Gray, who will oversee the first HIV vaccine trials in the country.

The primary investigator into the first South African circumcision trial Bertran Auvert of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research told AFP it was time for implementation.

“It’s not even my opinion. It’s now a WHO recommendation,” he said.

The circumcision debate revealed one of the biggest challenges was getting the message across that being circumcised was not foolproof.

Critics of the mass use of male circumcision to combat HIV, like Tim Quinlan from the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Health Economics and HIV/Aids Research Division, said there were dangers of jumping into the use of male circumcision without it forming part of a larger package of measures.

South Africa has the second highest number of HIV sufferers in the world, with 5.5 million people infected.

A recent survey claimed that Aids may be killing elected officials in some southern African countries faster than they can be replaced, creating a new threat to democracy and governance in the region.

The Institute for Democracy in South Africa said a study of mortality patterns in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Senegal indicated the African HIV/Aids crisis was reaching deep into elected governments.

Meanwhile, a HIV drug was recalled yesterday after “human error” led to it having higher than normal levels of a chemical which can cause cancer.

William Burns, chief executive of the Swiss company Roche’s pharmaceutical division, said the impurity had been caused by interaction between two chemicals, one of them a cleaner, in a vessel in which the product was made.

Viracept or nelfinavir was recalled on Wednesday after batch tests revealed higher than normal quantities of the chemical in question.