Lessons learned from scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision focusing on adolescents: benefits, challenges, and potential opportunities for linkages with adolescent HIV, sexual, and reproductive health services.

BACKGROUND AND METHODS: By December 2013, it was estimated that close to 6 million men had been circumcised in the 14 priority countries for scaling up voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), the majority being adolescents (10-19 years). This article discusses why efforts to scale up VMMC should prioritize adolescent men, drawing from new evidence and experiences at the international, country, and service delivery levels. Furthermore, we review the extent to which VMMC programs have reached adolescents, addressed their specific needs, and can be linked to their sexual and reproductive health and other key services. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: In priority countries, adolescents represent 34%-55% of the target population to be circumcised, whereas program data from these countries show that adolescents represent between 35% and 74% of the circumcised men. VMMC for adolescents has several advantages: uptake of services among adolescents is culturally and socially more acceptable than for adults; there are fewer barriers regarding sexual abstinence during healing or female partner pressures; VMMC performed before the age of sexual debut has maximum long-term impact on reducing HIV risk at the individual level and consequently reduces the risk of transmission in the population. Offered as a comprehensive package, adolescent VMMC can potentially increase public health benefits and offers opportunities for addressing gender norms. Additional research is needed to assess whether current VMMC services address the specific needs of adolescent clients, to test adapted tools, and to assess linkages between VMMC and other adolescent-focused HIV, health, and social services.

Penile measurements in Tanzanian males: guiding circumcision device design and supply forecasting.

PURPOSE: Voluntary medical male circumcision decreases the risk in males of HIV infection through heterosexual intercourse by about 60% in clinical trials and 73% at post-trial followup. In 2007 WHO and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) recommended that countries with a low circumcision rate and high HIV prevalence expand voluntary medical male circumcision programs as part of a national HIV prevention strategy. Devices for adult/adolescent male circumcision could accelerate the pace of scaling up voluntary medical male circumcision. Detailed penile measurements of African males are required for device development and supply size forecasting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Consenting males undergoing voluntary medical male circumcision at 3 health facilities in the Iringa region, Tanzania, underwent measurement of the penile glans, shaft and foreskin. Age, Tanner stage, height and weight were recorded. Measurements were analyzed by age categories. Correlations of penile parameters with height, weight and body mass index were calculated. RESULTS: In 253 Tanzanian males 10 to 47 years old mean ± SD penile length in adults was 11.5 ± 1.6 cm, mean shaft circumference was 8.7 ± 0.9 cm and mean glans circumference was 8.8 ± 0.9 cm. As expected, given the variability of puberty, measurements in younger males varied significantly. Glans circumference highly correlated with height (r = 0.80) and weight (r = 0.81, each p <0.001). Stretched foreskin diameter moderately correlated with height (r = 0.68) and weight (r = 0.71, each p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our descriptive study provides penile measurements of males who sought voluntary medical male circumcision services in Iringa, Tanzania. To our knowledge this is the first study in a sub-Saharan African population that provides sufficiently detailed glans and foreskin dimensions to inform voluntary medical male circumcision device development and size forecasting.

Voluntary medical male circumcision: matching demand and supply with quality and efficiency in a high-volume campaign in Iringa Region, Tanzania.

The government of Tanzania has adopted voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) as an important component of its national HIV prevention strategy and is scaling up VMMC in eight regions nationwide, with the goal of reaching 2.8 million uncircumcised men by 2015. In a 2010 campaign lasting six weeks, five health facilities in Tanzania's Iringa Region performed 10,352 VMMCs, which exceeded the campaign's target by 72%, with an adverse event (AE) rate of 1%. HIV testing was almost universal during the campaign. Through the adoption of approaches designed to improve clinical efficiency-including the use of the forceps-guided surgical method, the use of multiple beds in an assembly line by surgical teams, and task shifting and task sharing-the campaign matched the supply of VMMC services with demand. Community mobilization and bringing client preparation tasks (such as counseling, testing, and client scheduling) out of the facility and into the community helped to generate demand. This case study suggests that a campaign approach can be used to provide high-volume quality VMMC services without compromising client safety, and provides a model for matching supply and demand for VMMC services in other settings.