The American Government under President Bush has cut funding for the only US foreign-assistance project that provided male circumcision (omskæring) as a method of AIDS prevention.
At a time when scientists are lining up behind the idea that circumcision provides substantial protection against HIV transmission, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has pulled out of a small, 150.000 US dollar program in Swaziland that had circumcised more than 325 men since it was launched in January.
David Snider, a USAID spokesman, said the agency had been wrong to provide its initial funding for the program, which is run by a private non-profit called Family Life Association of Swaziland.
US foreign-assistance guidelines allow American money to be used for “formative assessments related to male circumcision but will not support the actual provision of clinical services” until further scientific evidence of its effectiveness is available.
– This was the one donor-funded program that was making male circumcision more available anywhere in Africa, said a Western AIDS official who works with Swaziland, adding:
– The other donors are not doing anything to actually provide the services, and people are dying in huge numbers.
Swaziland, a tiny kingdom in southern Africa, has the worlds highest HIV prevalence rate, with 33,4 per cent of adults thought to be infected, according to UNAIDS. Almost 39 million people worldwide carry the AIDS virus, 24,5 million of them in sub-Sahara n Africa, according to UNAIDS.
At least three major studies have looked at the effect of circumcision on HIV transmission. One study in South Africa concluded that circumcision reduced the risk of HIV infection by 60 to 75 per cent. The other studies are still underway.
Kilde: The Push Journal
