Botswana lags behind SA in male circumcision

Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Thursday April 3, 2014 12:19

 

Almost half of the 12,896 men interviewed in the recently released South African National HIV Prevalence, Incidence and Behavioural Survey, had been circumcised.

Findings indicated that almost half (46.4%) of the male respondents aged 15 years and above were circumcised. By comparison, the last available data for Botswana indicates that an average of 24.3% male respondents aged 15 and over are circumcised.

While the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BAIS) results released earlier this year showed that circumcision rates had climbed from 11 percent in 2008 but the figures within specific age groups were significantly lower than in South Africa.  While the South African study pegs the circumcision rate within males aged 25–49 years at 48.8 percent, the BAIS reported an average rate of 27.2 percent. According to the South African report, circumcision rates were high among black African males (52.4%), those from both rural informal areas and urban informal areas (52.3% and 53.4%, respectively) and individuals from the Eastern Cape and Limpopo (74.0% and 72.6% respectively). In terms of place/method of circumcision setting, the majority of participants reported that they had been circumcised in traditional settings on the mountain or in the bush/at initiation school (52.5%), followed by hospital or clinic mainly through voluntary male medical circumcision (40.1%).

In Botswana, figures indicate that circumcision rates are higher among older males, climbing from 22.5 percent for those aged 20–24, to 39.2 percent among those aged 55-59 years of age. Local health authorities caution that the low circumcision rates among younger males are contrary to the goals of the Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) programme, as HIV is more prevalent among younger members of the population. The BAIS indicates that the majority of men were circumcised under the SMC programme, while 14.9 percent used traditional methods and another 11.9 percent used private health facilities.

A small proportion, 4.6 percent, did not know where they were circumcised, likely due to their age at the time of the procedure.