THE Ministry of Health and Child Care is piloting a new surgical male circumcision device which it hopes will help increase the number of people undergoing the operation.
Secretary for Health and Child Care Dr Gerald Gwinji said this at the on-going 4th Annual Zimbabwe Uniformed Forces Health Services Conference in Victoria Falls.
Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces General Constantine Chiwenga officially opened the conference on Monday.
“Voluntary male circumcision is an important prevention methodology in an attempt to deal with HIV and Aids. We need however, to reach certain targets in order to meet a certain population level impact that we should get but the challenge is that we have just started and the method we are using allows a certain number of circumcisions to be done,” said Dr Gwinji.
“We are at the tail end of piloting a device which will make us to circumcise more people faster. We have deployed this to be used by nurses and doctors and we can then be able to achieve the target that we need to achieve.”
He said they were waiting for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to approve the use of the new device.
“The issue now is about pre-qualification. We have done all the necessary studies and all data is there. The WHO is now going through all the processes and as soon as this device is approved (by WHO) funding will be made available from all sorts of partners,” said Dr Gwinji.
He said the country cannot afford to procure the right number of devices required hence the need for partnerships.
Dr Gwinji said only 35 000 people were circumcised during the first quarter of 2016 against a target of 75 000.-zimpapers
