An AIDs Free Generation in Rwanda

Dohwa Jina Kim,

Correspondent (Africa)

 

KIGALI — A new proposal in Rwanda aims to create an AIDS free generation by non-surgically circumcising 7,00,000 adult men between ages 15 to 49 by the year 2016. Two lakh ten thousand men (2.9%) in Rwanda are recorded to be living with HIV in the country, which is relatively low for an African country. The non-surgical circumcision procedure involves Prepex, a plastic device comprising two rings and an elastic band, which restricts the blood flow to the foreskin causing it to shrivel after a week.

This device has been used in various countries in Africa, including Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Supported by the World Health Organisation, Rwanda claims to be the first country to initiate a non-surgical male circumcision project. The Prepex Company states that the plastic device is applied in only five minutes and does not interfere with any day-to-day activities. However, they strongly suggest that the wearer should abstain from sex for the following six weeks until full recovery.

Image Courtesy: By Hjalmar Gislason from Reykjavik, Iceland (Rwandan flag) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons