By SITEMBILE SIWAWA
THE American government is pleased with
the progress made by the Zambian government towards the scaling-up of national
male circumcision (MC) programmes.
Presidential Emergency Plan for Aids Relief
(PEPFAR) deputy country coordinator Elizabeth Brennan said her government is
optimistic given the Zambian government's support of the MC programme including
its 2013 budget for service delivery.
Ms Brennan said in her response to a press
query that the engagement of influential traditional chiefs has scaled up the
huge response the MC drive has received.
She said even some members of
Parliament have been involved in championing male circumcision.
"Some honourable
members of Parliament have continued championing voluntary male circumcision by
having themselves circumcised", she said.
Ms Brennan said to date; the US
government has given Zambia over US$22 million on male circumcision activities.
She said the money spent so far includes a tripling of funding between 2011 and
2012 in order to support the Zambian government's ambitious target of 1.9
million HIV-negative Zambian men by 2015.
She has since urged the government to
accelerate the provision and demand of voluntary medical male circumcision
services in order to have impact to control the HIV epidemic.
Recently,
government announced that so far over 300,000 males have been circumcised and
further intends to circumcise 80 percent of all HIV negative uncircumcised adult
males aged 15 to 49 years.
This will be done to avert close to 340,000 new
infections by the year 2025.
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