KISUMU (Xinhua) — Kenya’s Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) programme rolled out in 2009 has surpassed its target.
The National Aids and STI Control Programme (VMMC) Programme Manager Francis Ndwiga said they have surpassed the 940,000 target by about 100,000.
Ndwiga said some of the key factors that led to the success of the programme is the coordination and support from both the government and non-governmental organisations.
“There was also acceptability among the communities that do not practice male circumcision culturally and this made us to surpass the target,” he said.
In Nyanza region, where male circumcision is not practiced culturally, there was acceptability among men of between ages 15 and 35 years.
Male circumcision has been scientifically proven to reduce a man’s risk of contracting HIV by 60 per cent and follow-up studies have found that the effectiveness of male circumcision for HIV prevention is maintained for several years.
The Kenya National Aids Control & STI Programme (Nascop) is gearing towards the second phase of the project that is targeting a million people.
The programme is going to shift its focus to infant male circumcision that targets children between 0 to 60 days old. Another targeted group is men of between 14 to 45 years old.
Some of the counties that are being targeted in Kenya include Turkana, Marsabit, West Pokot and Coast.
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