Malawians urged to adopt new measures of preventing HIV/AIDS

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Abigail Dzimadzi

Malawians have been urged to adopt modern ways that can help to prevent the spread of HIV in the country.

This was disclosed during a press briefing organised by Malawi Network of Aids Service Organisation (Manaso) which is an organisation that coordinates all organisations that are fighting against the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.

According to Executive Director of Manaso Abigail Dzimadzi, old ways of preventing contracting HIV/AIDS such as the abstinence, being faithful and condomise method have proved not successful as far as preventing AIDS is concerned.

Abigail Dzimadzi
Abigail Dzimadzi emphasizing on the need for adopting new methods of HIV/AIDS prevention.

“How can you tell a prostitute to use ABC method since she relies on having sex with multiple partners to earn a living?” queried Dzimadzi.

She said that Malawians should adopt all ways that are in the HIV prevention toolbox to escape contaminating with the virus.

“Malawians should use abstinence, being faithful, condomise and other modern methods like male circumcision, post exposure taking of Anti-Retroviral (ARVs) drugs to prevent themselves from contacting the virus,” she said

On his part, researcher Tchangani Tembo said that people who have had unprotected sex should visit a nearby clinic to take ARVs within 72 hours to block the virus from entering into the body of the other partner.

“Statistics have revealed that a large number of people living in sub-Saharan Africa are HIV positive compared to the rest of the world. About 980,000 of Malawians are HIV positive whereby 540,000 are women, a number that is worrisome,” said Tembo.

Tchangani Tembo
Tchangani Tembo making a presentation.

He also claimed that Medical Male Circumcision is an important tool that can help to prevent the spread of HIV Aids.

Tembo said circumcision can prevent a man from contracting the HIV virus since the penis becomes hard and that avoids the virus from entering.

“The primary approach to medical male circumcision is a simple surgery and it differs from traditional circumcision which is performed as part of religious ritual or cultural rite of passage,” said Tembo.

According to Tembo, medical male circumcision reduces men’s risk of acquiring HIV from their female partners by roughly 75 percent.

Once a man is circumcised, the procedure cannot be reversed and the partial protection continues throughout his lifetime.

However, previous reports have shown that there is no conclusive evidence to support claims that male circumcision reduces HIV infection.

In our previous investigation, we also found that males who undergo circumcision are likely to get infection than their uncircumcised counterparts.

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5 Comments

  1. No one have a knowledge of protecting or healing HIV/acids,it’s only Jesus,you guys you just waisting your time. Is better to come together pray.no matter how powerful you are in this planet you can’t do anything to end up this epidemic without jesus.

  2. Which is which now doctors?More confusion on preventive measures.Today this tomorrow that.

  3. Which is which now doctors.More confusion on preventive measures.

  4. Claiming that circumcision prevents a health problem is a compulsion of circumcised men to have done to others what was done to them. Historically, this compulsion has led to over 200 potential health claims for circumcision. All have been refuted. Thirteen national and international organizations recommend against circumcision.

    Many professionals have criticized the studies claiming that circumcision reduces HIV transmission. The investigators did not seek to determine the source of the HIV infections during their studies. They assumed all infections were heterosexually transmitted.

    Many HIV infections in Africa are transmitted by contaminated injections and surgical procedures. The absolute rate of HIV transmission reduction is only 1.3%, not the claimed 60%. Even if the claim were true, based on the studies, about 60 men had to be circumcised to prevent one HIV infection.

    Authorities that cite the studies have other agendas including political and financial. All other national and international organizations that have positions on circumcision oppose it. Research shows that circumcision causes physical, sexual, and psychological harm, reducing the sexual pleasure of both partners. This harm is ignored by circumcision advocates. Other methods to prevent HIV transmission (e.g., condoms and sterilizing medical instruments) are much more effective, much cheaper, and much less invasive. Even HIV/circumcision studies advise using condoms. With condoms circumcision adds no benefit to HIV prevention.

  5. Malawian men are *more* likely to have HIV if they’ve been circumcised:

    7.9% of intact Malawian men have HIV
    10.3% of circumcised Malawian men have HIV

    (figures from MeasureDHS)

    There are at least nine other African countries where men are *more* likely to be HIV+ if they’ve been circumcised. Why then is male circumcision being promoted to prevent HIV?

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