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Scale-up of voluntary male circumcision cost-effective way to prevent HIV in S. and E. Africa
A collection of nine new articles to be published in PLoS Medicine and PLoS ONE, in conjunction with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), highlights how scaling up voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention in eastern and southern Africa can help prevent HIV not only at individual but also at community and population level as well as lead to substantial cost savings for countries due to averted treatment and care costs.
The first article by Catherine Hankins of UNAIDS, Steven Forsythe of The Futures Institute, and Emmanuel Njeuhmeli of PEPFAR/USAID, offers an introduction to the cost, impact and challenges of accelerated scaling up and lays out the rationale for the series. This article, as well as the one to follow, signposts the way forward to accelerate the scaling up of VMMC service delivery safely and efficiently to reap individual-and population-level benefits.
The remaining 8 papers also focus on the various factors that go into effective program expansion of VMMC, including data for decision making, policy and programmatic frameworks, logistics, demand creation, human resources, and translating research into services.
The cost savings are clear: an initial investment of US$1.5 billion between 2011 and 2015 to achieve 80% coverage of VMMC services in 14 priority countries in southern and eastern Africa and thereafter US$0.5 billion between 2016 to 2025 to maintain that coverage of 80% would result in net savings of US$16.5 billion between 2011 and 2025. However, as the articles in the collection show, strong political leadership, country ownership, and stakeholder engagement, along with effective demand creation, community mobilisation, and human resource deployment, are essential in effectively expanding and maintaining VMMC programs.
The series publishes on 29th November 2011 in PLoS Medicine and PLoS ONE.
A question and answer Twitter expert session [#VMMC@USAIDGH] will be held on 19th December, 2011 from 1pm-2pm with Emmanuel Njeuhmeli, MD, MPH, MBA, Senior Biomedical Prevention Advisor of the Office of HIV/AIDS/USAID Washington, Co-Chair PEPFAR, Male Circumcision Technical Working Group, an author of the collection.
A Joint Strategic Action Framework to accelerate the scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision for HIV prevention in eastern and southern Africa, 2012 - 2016, will be launched on 5th December 2011 at the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) in Addis Ababa. The Framework has been developed with WHO, UNAIDS, PEPFAR, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and national programmes.
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Circumcision is a tragedy
Circumcision is a tragedy for Africa. Many professionals have criticized the studies claiming that circumcision reduces HIV transmission. They have various flaws. Authorities that cite the studies have other agendas. Circumcision causes physical, sexual, and psychological harm. Other methods to prevent HIV transmission (e.g., condoms and sterilizing medical instruments) are much more effective, much cheaper, and much less invasive. Please see http://www.circumcision.org/hiv.htm for more information.
Circumcision is a tragedy
Circumcision is a tragedy for Africa. Many professionals have criticized the studies claiming that circumcision reduces HIV transmission. They have various flaws. Authorities that cite the studies have other agendas. Circumcision causes physical, sexual, and psychological harm. Other methods to prevent HIV transmission (e.g., condoms and sterilizing medical instruments) are much more effective, much cheaper, and much less invasive. Please see http://www.circumcision.org/hiv.htm for more information.
Amazing. First, HIV
Amazing.
First, HIV researchers are not held to the same standards of accountability as other researchers. Half the people publishing studies or rubber stamping them, do not have medical degrees. These include Dr. Robert C. Bailey, Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago (degree in degrees in Anthropology and behavioral epidemiology, not medical epidemiology) and Dr. Daniel T. Halperin of Harvard Medical School (degree in Latin American studies and Anthropology). Dr. Brian Morris of the University of Sydney is a molecular biologist and professor of molecular medical sciences. He is also not a medical doctor. All three support the Gilgal Society (Hebrew for hill of foreskins). Most who examined it would regard this as a fetish group.
Dr. David Tomlinson is chief expert to the World Health Organization
on circumcision. He invented the "improved" Gomco, the "improved"
Plastibell and the "improved" Accu-circ. Obviously, it is a conflict
of interest for him to hold the position, when he stands to make money
from each of these circumcision clamps sold.
Here Dr. Tomlinson is quoted in the advertising brochure for the Accu-circ.
http://todayshospitalist.com/index.php?b=articles_read&cnt=647
and an ad:
http://www.kentecmedical.com/media/document/AccuCircWorkshopBrochure.pdf
They make it seem so safe, comfortable, and marketable.
Now, on the basis of this hill of pseudo-research, we the public are being asked to believe that a "Scale-up of voluntary male circumcision cost-effective way to prevent HIV in S. and E. Africa". All without any proof that the strategy is working. All supported by uncritical articles in places such as Science Codex, Scientific American, and PLoS Medicine.
Where are all of you people going to be, when the strategy fails, as it inevitably will? Are you going to stand up and say, "I did this"?
Where have you hidden the people who do real science, the kind that demands proof and evidence?
Amazing. First, HIV
Amazing.
First, HIV researchers are not held to the same standards of accountability as other researchers. Half the people publishing studies or rubber stamping them, do not have medical degrees. These include Dr. Robert C. Bailey, University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Daniel T. Halperin of Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Brian Morris of the University of Sydney. None of these three is a medical doctor. All three support the Gilgal Society (Hebrew for hill of foreskins). Most who examined it would regard this as a fetish group.
Dr. David Tomlinson is chief expert to the World Health Organization
on circumcision. He invented 3 circumcision clamps. Obviously, it is a conflict of interest.
Here Dr. Tomlinson is quoted in the advertising brochure for the Accu-circ.
http://todayshospitalist.com/index.php?b=articles_read&cnt=647
and an ad:
http://www.kentecmedical.com/media/document/AccuCircWorkshopBrochure.pdf
They make it seem so safe, comfortable, and marketable.
Now, on the basis of this hill of pseudo-research, we the public are being asked to believe that a "Scale-up of voluntary male circumcision cost-effective way to prevent HIV in S. and E. Africa". All without any proof that the strategy is working. All supported by uncritical articles in places such as Science Codex, Scientific American, and PLoS Medicine.
Where are all of you people going to be, when the strategy fails, as it inevitably will? Are you going to stand up and say, "I did this"?
Where have you hidden the people who do real science, the kind that demands proof and evidence?
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