Media Watch

Lessons from Swaziland: male circumcision

We already know that male circumcision is the next biggest frontier in South Africa's fight against HIV-AIDS.

Enabling policy guidelines are still being finalised before the expected roll-out. This could be anytime soon, most definitely after the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup which, mind you, is expected to chew up an extra 1.5 billion condoms that the government is providing.

While doubts and counter arguments follow male circumcision, it is possible that South Africa can learn something from Swaziland. However, unlike South Africa which has a mixed experience regarding male circumcision, the Swazi kingdom has one of the lowest circumcision rates in the world, most of which are performed for medical reasons.

But the scale of the AIDS epidemic made it consider any intervention that would help reduce the scale of the AIDS epidemic. Swaziland has among the most acute HIV epidemics in the world, with HIV prevalence among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics estimated at 42% in 2008.