Surgeons warn on knife sharing
An inmate at the Naivasha Maximum Security Prison undergoes the cut inside the reform facility. Surgeons are advising circumcisers to use one knife per person in this year’s circumcision exercise scheduled to begin in April in Bungoma.
Circumcisers have been advised to use one knife per person in this year’s circumcision exercise scheduled to begin in April.
Bungoma District Hospital Medical Officer of Health Silas Ayunga said this would go a long way in curbing the spread of HIV and Aids.
Dr Ayunga said research had revealed that one knife could spread the disease to all the new initiates.
He said chances of children being infected with Aids during circumcision by use one knife was high because the blades are not sterilised.
At the same time, the health official appealed to parents to take their children for circumcision in hospitals and health centres.
Earn easy money
“Parents prefer their children to be cut traditionally without knowing that they are risking the lives of the young ones as some lose their genitals to untrained circumcisers whose aim is only to earn easy money,” Dr Ayunga said.
The MOH said Aids prevalence in Bungoma district was 5.1 per cent adding that poverty and wife inheritance were contributing to the spread.
He said since the culture of wife inheritance was common in the district, men should always know the status of the widows before taking them as their wives.
“Many children are orphans because their fathers have failed to stick to one partner. These minors have been unable to continue with their education after the death of the breadwinners forcing them to go to streets to earn a living,” Dr Ayunga said.
He told area residents to use condoms which he said could protect them from being infected with the virus.
Also, Dr Ayunga told people who were HIV positive go to hospitals and health centres to get free antiretroviral drugs which can prevent many infections.
