[afro-nets] New Web site on male circumcision for HIV prevention from WHO, UNAIDS, FHI and AVAC

We are pleased to announce a new Web site designed to generate and share authoritative information about the role of male circumcision in HIV prevention: Please visit the Clearinghouse on Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention - www.malecircumcision.org<http://www.malecircumcision.org>. It contains:

* A browsable database of hundreds of scientific abstracts and full-text articles
* An inventory of research activities on male circumcision
* Tools and guidelines for provider training and program scale-up
* Evidence-based protocols and guidelines
* A compendium of better and best practices
* User-friendly summaries of advocacy issues and civil society engagement
* An opportunity to sign up for an RSS feed on news related to male circumcision
* A global mechanism for exchanging and integrating information on male circumcision programs and associated services

The Clearinghouse was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), and Family Health International (FHI) to provide evidence-based guidance to support the delivery of safe male circumcision services as one component in a comprehensive approach to HIV-prevention services. Material on http://www.malecircumcision.org has been reviewed by experts from leading institutions around the world, including:

AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition<http://www.avac.org>
Family Health International<http://www.fhi.org/en/index.htm&gt;
Harvard University School of Public Health<http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/&gt;
JHPIEGO (Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics)<http://www.jhpiego.org/&gt;
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine<http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/&gt;
UNAIDS<http://www.unaids.org/en/&gt;
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health<http://www.uic.edu/sph/&gt;
World Health Organization<http://www.who.org>

The Clearinghouse on Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention is an essential Web site for all those working on male circumcision for HIV prevention - a resource for sharing information, ideas and approaches. Please let your colleagues know of this new site. Thank you!

For more information, see: http://www.malecircumcision.org

Very interesting stuff. However, this raised a few questions for me coming from Nigeria where circumcision of the male child is a given after 8th day of birth. I would say about 90% of Nigeria males are circumcised this way. The methods used have also been improved over the years and a considerable percentage of the circumcision is carried out in health facilities using the ring method (not sure the clinical term).

In my opinion, it is worth exploring/researching comparative evidence as regards the role of male circumcision in HIV infection using the Nigerian context as an example.

Funmi Esan-Olayiwola
mailto:f-olayiwola@dfid.gov.uk

Hi Funmi,

Over the last couple of years, some of us have tried to advocate for a situational analysis of MC in Nigeria, especially to document the incidence of complications and make recommendations for written guidelines and standardization of procedures. We have reports indicating a complication rate that is as high as 24% and I have a couple of videos on traditional MC in Nigeria that shows clearly that there is plenty of room for improvement. I think high circumcising populations such as Nigeria owe the rest of the developing world some guidance in how best to achieve safe circumcisions in their individual countries. Hopefully in the coming year, one of our development partners will finally recognize the need to support this work.

'Dipo

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Emmanuel Otolorin
mailto:eotolorin@jhpiego.net