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Voluntary medical male circumcision and HIV in Zambia: expectations and observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2019

Michel Garenne Open the ORCID record for Michel Garenne [Opens in a new window]  and
Alan Matthews
Michel Garenne*
Affiliation:
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Institut Pasteur, Epidémiologie des Maladies Emergentes, Paris, France Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMI Résiliences, Bondy, France FERDI, Université d’Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Alan Matthews
Affiliation:
School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Michel.Garenne@pasteur.fr
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Abstract

The study analysed the HIV/AIDS situation in Zambia six years after the onset of mass campaigns of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC). The analysis was based on data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in 2001, 2007 and 2013. Results show that HIV prevalence among men aged 15–29 (the target group for VMMC) did not decrease over the period, despite a decline in HIV prevalence among women of the same age group (most of their partners). Correlations between male circumcision and HIV prevalence were positive for a variety of socioeconomic groups (urban residence, province of residence, level of education, ethnicity). In a multivariate analysis, based on the 2013 DHS survey, circumcised men were found to have the same level of infection as uncircumcised men, after controlling for age, sexual behaviour and socioeconomic status. Lastly, circumcised men tended to have somewhat riskier sexual behaviour than uncircumcised men. This study, based on large representative samples of the Zambian population, questions the current strategy of mass circumcision campaigns in southern and eastern Africa.

Keywords

HIV/AIDSCircumcisionVMMC
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 560 - 572
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

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