326 000 Men Circumcised In 2018

The Ministry of Health said at least 326 000 men were circumcised last year, representing 90% of the target set.

Sinokuthemba Xaba, director of National Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in the Health ministry yesterday told a strategic review meeting that more should be done, particularly targeting the older generation to encourage them to get circumcised. Said Xaba:

In relation to the targets, our achievement for last year was about 90% of our targets and this was in excess of 326 000 against a target of 350 000 circumcisions. This is by any measure very good given the history of the programme when we started in 2009. We used to have annual figures of 2 000. The previous strategy contributed to the rapid scale up of the programme, and this new strategy that we are unveiling today will set the pace for the new focus in the programme which is geared on transitioning this initiative to sustainability. Sustainability in our HIV programmes is of critical importance as we need to ensure continued quality service provision, even in light of dwindling donor funding

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