Circumcision just got easier

| Mary-Anne Gontsana
Dayanaud Loykissoonlal, programme manager for medical male circumcision at the national Department of Health, cutting the ribbon to launch the new mobile theatres. On the right is Nikki Soboil, CEO of SACTWU Health Programme. Photo by Masixole Feni.

In a bid to get thousands of men in the Western Cape circumcised, the national department of health (NDoH) officially cut the ribbon to launch the new mobile theatres which will be going around the Cape’s remote areas, to get males circumcised.

The mobile theatres, which look like containers loaded onto trucks, have generators for electricity, a tank for water and doors that are airtight to prevent dust entering. Fitted with two operating tables, it only takes half an hour for the circumcision to be performed and a local anaesthetic injected so that the procedure is pain free.

The NDoH’s programme manager for medical male circumcision, Dayanaud Loykissoonlal said that men who had been circumcised reduced their risk of contracting HIV by at least 60 percent.

The launch, which was on Saturday in Stellenbosch, was also part of a new drive to persuade members of the coloured community to choose circumcision.

Nikki Soboil, of the Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers’ Union’s Health Programme said, “We will be popping into every little village, no matter how tiny in the winelands, Overberg and Eden areas. Our foot soldiers will go beforehand to mobilise communities and the theatre will follow”.

The operations would be performed free of charge and recovery takes around six weeks.

For more information: Please download the Medical Male Circumcision FAQ brochure - English / Afrikaans or visit http://www.cleverdick.mobi.

TOPICS:  Health HIV

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