Boys to undergo the ‘cut’ at birth
Newborn babies lie in their cots in a hospital. National Aids Control Programme director, Dr Nicholas Muraguri has announced the adoption of circumcision of the boy child as a strategy towards fighting HIV/AIDS. Male children will be circumcised before their mothers leave the maternity ward. PHOTO/ FILE
What you need to know:
- Move is aimed at reducing risk of contracting HIV by men
Boys could soon be circumcised immediately after birth as part of the fight against Aids.
The National Aids Control Programme director, Dr Nicholas Muraguri, on Thursday said the organisation hopes to achieve 100 per cent male circumcision.
The move follows scientific research that showed that circumcision reduces men’s risk of contracting HIV by about 60 per cent. And to ensure all men benefit from this finding, baby boys would be circumcised before their mothers leave the maternity ward.
Speaking during an exhibition of photography on male circumcision and the launch of a photography book on the subject at Alliance Francaise, Dr Muraguri said 84 per cent of Kenyan men were circumcised.
He said after discovering that medical male circumcision could reduce the chance of contracting HIV by 60 per cent in a study done in South Africa, the government, in collaboration with partner organisations, started a campaign to have the non-circumcising communities adopt the custom.
“We are striving to take all the possible measures of stopping the spread of Aids and I am optimistic that in the next five years, the remaining 16 per cent of uncircumcised men will have undergone the cut,” he said.
Dr Muraguri was, however, quick to say that male circumcision was not a licence to have unsafe sex. One needs to take the other preventive measures such as abstinence, being faithful to one partner and condom use, he added.
He said the circumcision of baby boys at health institutions would also help curb complications and infections associated with the traditional cut.
“Boys in Western and some parts of Mt Kenya are taken through a dangerous and painful process in the hands of traditional circumcisers, some get very serious complications while others are infected,” he said.
He said there were 240 safe male circumcision centres in the country and that plans to establish more were under way. The NAC boss disclosed that there are between 76,000 and 104,000 new HIV/Aids infections in Kenya every year.
He said 44 per cent of the new infections were occurring in marriages.
