Pictures

Photo

Reuters Photojournalism

Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography.  See more | Photo caption 

Photo

Weird homes

Home is where the heart is, no matter what unusual form that home may take.  Slideshow 

Photo

The drone wars

The frontlines of America's covert drone program.  Slideshow 

Sponsored Links

Zimbabwe MPs surrender to scalpel in AIDS fight

Related Topics

HARARE | Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:13am EDT

HARARE (Reuters) - Forty-four members of Zimbabwe's parliament were circumcised on Friday as part of a national HIV/AIDS awareness campaign.

In a rare show of political unity, the MPs from President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's rival MDC camp chatted calmly with reporters as they queued at a clinic set up inside the parliament complex.

"When I went in there I was a bit scared but after they had explained the process I felt at ease," 53-year-old Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP Blessing Chebundo told Reuters within minutes of the operation.

"Now I don't feel any pain. I can even go and play a match of football."

Research cited by the World Health Organization has shown that male circumcision - removing all or part of the foreskin - can reduce a man's risk of getting HIV by up to 60 percent.

The procedure has become a central pillar of the southern African nation's fight against AIDS, and one MP even allowed photographers to take pictures of him lying on a bed with his recently bandaged penis on display.

Zimbabwe had one of the world's highest HIV infection rates in the late 1990s, but that more than halved to an estimated 13.7 percent of the adult population in 2009.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Cropley)
Health
Oddly Enough
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (3)
Hugh7 wrote:
In Zimbabwe in 2005, USAID found 14.2% of non-circumcised men had HIV compared to 16.6% of circumcised men. (Similar differencess apply in 10 of 18 countries for which it has figures.) Shouldn’t this at least be explained before blundering on with mass circumcision programmes? Clearly what seemed to work in clinical trials does not necessarily work in the real world. The “60% reduction” figure is being waved like a witchdoctor’s jujustick, but it amounts to a total of 73 circumcised men who did not get HIV less than two years after 5,400 men were circumcised, while 64 did (and 327 dropped out, their HIV status unkknown). One reason could be here: http://tinyurl.com/7deqtap The experimenters did not correct nearly well enough for non-sexual transmission, especially through contaminated surgical instruments.

Zimbabwe has horrendous health problems. The money and resources being spent cutting men’s genitals could be used much more effectively on measures that would, for example, ensure children survive long enough to be at risk of sexually transmitted HIV. THEN is the time to worry about that.

Jun 22, 2012 9:48pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
24HourWealth wrote:
Good to see: Men taking responsibility and getting rid of the ‘schmucks’ from African politics :)

Jun 24, 2012 5:16pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
Byron5 wrote:
oh no.. poor suckers, I think their first idea about only having sex with virgins is probably more successful in reducing aids contraction among men.

Jun 28, 2012 3:59pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.
See All Comments »