Former Botswana President, Festus Mogae
THE Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has launched a five-year action framework to accelerate the scale up of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention.
The framework, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS, PEFPAR, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank in consultation with national Ministries of Health, calls for the immediate roll-out and expansion of VMMC services in 14 priority countries of eastern and southern Africa.
“Voluntary medical male circumcision is a high-impact and cost-effective prevention tool that will bring us one step closer to our goal of an HIV free generation,”
said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, who unveiled the action framework at the 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), together with partners.
“Each HIV infection averted is money in the bank and fiscal space
for the future,” he added. Joining Mr Sidibé at the launch in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, were the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Eric
Goosby and the former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae.
There is compelling evidence that VMMC, when provided by well-trained health professionals, reduces the risk of sexual transmission of HIV from women to UNITED Nations staff has been urged to reveal their HIV status in order to curb the spread of the pandemic among themselves and the community at large.
The remarks were made by Dr. Rufaro Chatora, the UN country