GENEVA: African health workers need more training and better tools to circumcise men and boys safely for HIV prevention, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) study chronicling “shocking” rates of complications.
As many as 35 per cent of males circumcised by traditional practitioners in Kenya’s Bungoma district suffered complications such as bleeding, infection, excessive pain and erectile dysfunction from the procedure, the WHO researchers found.
“Other common adverse effects reported were pain upon urination, incomplete circumcision requiring recircumcision, and laceration,” they wrote, estimating 6 per cent of patients had life-long problems as a result.
Although male circumcision is universally practised in Bungoma, the study said many clinicians there lacked sharp and clean instruments and few were formally trained. Even in public clinics, the complication rate was 18 per cent.
The findings, published on Monday in the WHO Bulletin, raised questions about whether the availability of male circumcision should be extended quickly as part of a strategy to fight HIV backed by the WHO and its sister UN agency UNAIDS.
“Extensive training and resources will be necessary to build the capacity of health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa before safe circumcision services can be aggressively promoted for HIV prevention,” the authors wrote.
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