Friday, March 29, 2024

Parliament told that 800,000 men in Zambia have been circumcised since 2007

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MINISTER of Health Dr. Joseph Kasonde gives his speech during the Zambia and Zimbabwe (ZamZim) joint World malaria day commemoration at Mukuni Park in Livingstone
MINISTER of Health Dr. Joseph Kasonde

PARLIAMENT yesterday heard that over 800,000 men in Zambia have been circumcised from 2007 when the campaign started to August 2014.

And Chikankata member of parliament Munji Habeenzu caused a stir in the House when he asked Health Minister Joseph Katema, whether he was circumcised as a role model.

This raised a stir in the House prompting Health deputy minister Steve Kampyongo to raise on a point of order on whether Mr Habeenzu was in order to ask Dr Kasonde, whom he described as an elderly father in the House such a question.

“Is the Chikankata MP in order to bury our cherished morals to ask our elederly father to compel him to divulge such private information,” Mr Kampyongo asked.

Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Patrick Matibini however said Dr Kasonde was not compelled but was at liberty to either answer the question or not.

Former Health minister Brian Chituwo caused laughter in the House when he said that he was 67years old and was not afraid to inform the nation that he was circumcised.

He said leading by example would either encourage or discourage those one was leading.

In responding to the question however, Dr Kasonde urged MPs to respect the confidentiality of medical issues inside and outside the House.

He was disappointed with Dr Chituwo fdor going against ethical principles of the medical profession of the right to confidentiality for which he was a part of as a medical doctor.

Dr Kasonde said there was a huge response from members of the public with regard to circumcision.

He was responding to a question for oral answer raised by Mwinilunga MP Katuka who wanted to find out homw many males countrywide had been circumcised from the time the exercise started to August 2014.

Male circumcision had gone a long way in preventing HIV/Aids and other STDs as well as penile and cervical cancers.

Mafinga MMD MP Catherine Namugala urged Government to educate people on the negative effects and myths about male circumcision but Dr Kasonde said reports of loss of sexual function had been raised but there had been no effect of sexual function.

Ikelengi MMD MP Elijah Muchima said shouldn’t circumcision be made a Bible policy where it was compulsory for boys by the age of eight years but Dr Kasonde maintained that the vice would remain voluntary.

Choma UPND MP Cornelius Mweetwa condemned compulsory HIV/Aids testing for people who wanted to be circumcised.

25 COMMENTS

  1. Dr kasonde,its not a question of age,this is about health issues,if l were u l would have answered yes or no kwasila! why do u bring issues to parliament when you are not cut?Tell us your status and we ll be encouraged to do it as well,kwati kaiche ukulanda. 800,000 is very small number,Health Ministry need to cut nearly every one.

  2. loss of sexual drive that’s the disadvantage how I wish I wasn’t deceived.just to reached the climax you have to think of other women sure and takes long where you are now tired and you just want to relieve yourself.

  3. Genital Mutilation in the name of circumcision. Go ahead chaps! So now you are implying the newly cut can now go agog, right!? Or if they do step out in the rain there is no need to condomize?? We seem to have neglected simple principles in favor of a controversial procedure. There is a growing number of men in the USA now who are opting for reconstruction because they feel disillusioned by the procedure that was done to them when they were infants. Teach hygiene, teach abstinence, teach condomizing. I would rather hear how many people are using condoms and not a hospital count of how many they have mutilated.

  4. It is a well known medical fact that circumcised men are less prone to picking up the HIV infection. The first research came out of Pakistan in 1993.

    • The relative 55% HIV protection advertised is really only 1% absolute. Circumcision didn’t help to prevent HIV in the USA which has the highest circ and HIV of all industrialized nations. There are two studies that show the same protective effect by circumcising females. Stallings is one. Both are not a good thing. Circumcision cuts of the most sensitive and pleasure producing tissue. That’s up to 85% of the fine-touch receptors (Sorrells et al.) Get ready to pay for Viagra who biggest customer is the USA.

  5. We Lundas do practice circumcision, together with our Luvale cousins. HIV is lowest in Northwestern Province, I agreed.

  6. Sheer waste of time. ..one only has to have a thorough bath twice a day. ..these campaigns are funded by the donors who themselves do not encourage it their own countries.
    Wake up from your docility MPs and debate real issues like that of us having a deadwood absentee president getting paid for sleeping in State House.

    • Having thorough baths twice a day will NOT protect against HIV. Abstinence or Being faithful with an HIV- partner, or Condoms will. It’s true that most western countries don’t circumcise though. In Europe, almost no-one is circumcised unless their parents are Jewish or Muslim. Even in north America, the circumcision rate is below 50% and dropping.

    • Having protected sex will prevent you from those deseases anything else is merely noise…so the need for circumcision is irrelevant.

  7. this is one of the best good news coming out of Zambia. we join our brothers the Lundas and Luvales in this noble tradition with grat health benefits. one Zambia one nation and good health

  8. ….if the vice’ is voluntary then then there is need to consider banning the mutilation of babies, children or anyone until the age of say 25…..when they will be old enough to make their own decisions……
    I have been to UK for a over 24 months, never did I see any advert on circumcision either on TV or high way bill boards as it is done in Zed but are busy sponsoring/funding for the vice in Zed..
    Some traditional practice need to be re-evaluated….such as appointing someone to ‘sleep’ with surviving spouse..’..in order to cast out spirits of the deceased…’..forcing mutilation of young boys..just as the mutilation of girl child in West and East Africa all in the name of ‘tradition’..
    ..not on my young boys, they will decide on their own when they are mature enough..

    • In Europe, almost no-one is circumcised unless their parents are Jewish or Muslim. Even in north America, the circumcision rate is below 50% and dropping.

      70% of the world’s men are intact (not circumcised)
      88% of the world’s non-Muslim men are intact.

  9. No wonder our women are loco with DRC guys! when it comes to it! they always say that the main bullet is not hidden in a bag and the head is bald and tasty!

  10. What an sojourn.

    Circumcision cannot prevent male to female transmission.

    Circumcision has never been proven to prevent female to male transmission.

    To everyone who has bought into the latest fad coming form the UN – you’ve all been had.

    Google: doctors opposing circumcision hiv statement

  11. CIRCUMCISION IS A VICIOUS DONOR MYTH TO UNSEX ZAMBIANS

    1.Medical benefits – THERE ARE NONE! Do not circumcise your baby because you think there are some medical benefits. A recent review by the American Academy of Pediatrics looked at all the data from the past decades to see if there truly were any medical benefits. Their conclusion – NO. There are no significant medical benefits that make circumcision worth doing. Here are a few benefits that we used to think were true, and now know are not. ?Cleanliness – although it is true, a circumcised penis does not collect any white stuff underneath the foreskin like an intact penis does, THIS IS NOT A MEDICAL BENEFIT. It is really just one less area to wash in the shower.
    ?Decreased risk of STD’s – this was a myth that we now know is not…

  12. From a USAID report:
    “There appears no clear pattern of association between male circumcision and HIV prevalence—in 8 of 18 countries with data, HIV prevalence is lower among circumcised men, while in the remaining 10 countries it is higher.”
    This will include many men who have undergone tribal circumcision, but they are also likely to believe that they are protected against HIV.

    It seems highly unrealistic to expect that there will be no risk compensation. The South African National Communication Survey on HIV/AIDS, 2009 found that 15% of adults across age groups “believe that circumcised men do not need to use condoms”.

    • It is unclear if circumcised men are more likely to infect women. The only ever randomized controlled trial into male-to-female transmission showed a 54% higher rate in the group where the men had been circumcised:

      ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful, and especially Condoms) is the way forward. Promoting genital surgery seems likely to cost African lives rather than save them.

      Europeans don’t circumcise, South Americans don’t circumcise, Australians and New Zealanders used to circumcise but stopped, and less than half of North Americans circumcise. Why should Africans circumcise?

    • Recent news from Botswana:
      “There is an upsurge of cases of people who got infected with HIV following circumcision.”

      and from Zimbabwe:
      “SOME circumcised men are contracting HIV and Aids after ditching the use of condoms, under a misguided belief that male circumcision (MC) would prevent them from getting infected”

      and from Kenya:
      “Push for male circumcision in Nyanza fails to reduce infections”

      and from Uganda:
      “A new study of 314 female sex workers (FSWs) in Makindye division found that more than half of respondents falsely believe that once a man is circumcised, protection is not necessary during sex.”

    • ” ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful, and especially Condoms) is the way forward. ”

      Sorry, however there is no evidence for that either.

      The fact is that the types of surveys, and how tests are performed in those surveys, are much more important in getting a realistic picture of what the prevalence of the disease actually is.

      Until we only use the Demographic and Health Surveys and expand testing from using an Elisa P24 HIV test and an Elisa P55 HIV Test, to adding two Western Blot tests, just like in individual diagnosis of patients (in the US), we are not going to have accurate data.

      However the introduction of the DHS survey showed the real nature of the problem:

      Google: How AIDS in Africa Was Overstated

  13. One major problem I hav come to learn wen ur are circumcised :let’s say ur wearin a condom 1st round u wil lease now a 2nd round once u want to wear a condom it wil b difikoti for it to b strong nd hard unles live so I hv come to learn tht it has reduced some filling in some cases unless ur doin it wit a partner in HIV free state otherwise circumcision na condom don’t get along believ u me but live its superpower for a lady to injoy. Get circumcised to avoid sexual apetite any how felas

  14. Circumcision reduces sensitivity. If one undergoes genital mutilation at 67, he might not have any single erection the rest of his life.

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