Ministry yet to reach circumcision target
The Ministry of Health says it has so far circumcised over 36 000 males against its planned target of 60 000 in the just-ended 30-day Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) campaign.
The campaign which targeted men of the productive age range of 15 to 49 covered six districts of Thyolo, Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mulanje, Nkhotakota and Phalombe.
The ministry’s national health programme officer Amon Khata in an interview attributed the figure to the low turnout experienced during the first week of the exercise.
“Many people started patronising our centres towards the end of the exercise.
“Having 36 000 people circumcised in a period of 30 days is an achievement in the history of the ministry because in similar exercises the past two years, we only managed to circumcise 42 000 people,” said Nkhata.
The Ministry of Health in conjunction with the Population Service and International (PSI) launched the campaign on July 22 this year.
