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Swazi Men Opting To Be Circumcised

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The Associated Press

Published: November 3, 2008

MBABANE, Swaziland - Nelson Mdlovu strides out of the small clinic with a spring in his step and a smile on his lips just minutes after being circumcised.

Mdlovu swallowed his fears to line up with nine other equally nervous men for the 30-minute operation. They joined the hundreds of Swazi men who have opted for circumcision after the United Nations said last year that it could cut the risk of contracting the HIV virus by as much as 60 percent.

With the help of training from Israeli surgeons, Swaziland now leads the African rush to embrace an ancient surgical intervention against a modern scourge.

It is a zeal born of desperation. Swaziland suffers from the world's highest AIDS rates - nearly 40 percent of pregnant women and 19 percent of its 1.1 million people are infected.

This is the equivalent of 56.6 million Americans, 11 million Britons, 212 million Indians or 248 million Chinese. Life expectancy has halved to 31 years in just a decade.

But there are rumbling fears that the "kindest cut" may be a double-edged sword, because it could lead men to fool themselves that circumcision gives them immunity and indulge in risky sexual behavior.

The AIDS epidemic has reversed all Swaziland's economic and social gains since independence from Britain 40 years ago.

"If you had a vaccine with a 60 percent effectiveness rate, every government would force people to line up and have it," says Derek von Wissel, director of Swaziland's National Emergency Response Committee on HIV/AIDS.

Universal male circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa could prevent 5.7 million infections and 3 million deaths over 20 years, according to studies cited by the United Nations.

Von Wissel, the head of the emergency committee, says spending on HIV/AIDS this year is $36 million - and even that's not enough to tackle an epidemic that is destroying the fabric of Swazi society.

"How do you socialize children with nobody hugging and kissing them?" agonizes von Wissel.

"What will be the result in society in 10-15 years' time? Nobody has walked this path before."

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