Monitoring ritual circumcision

CITIZEN REPORTER

JOHANNESBURG - Winter is a time of change, from being a boy to becoming a man, and health officials will be monitoring initiation schools nationally.

Traditional male circumcision is practiced throughout the country in different cultural groups. Initiates often die from complications and under some circumstances are put at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV/Aids and other blood-borne infections. But, research has shown, circumcised men carry a lower risk of contracting HIV than uncircumcised men.

A 2001 study by international author Kathryn Stinson identifies the four main issues for control:

n The traditional surgeon is often not sufficiently trained.

n Surgical instruments are often unsterile and reused, introducing the threat of spreading blood-borne infections.

n As youths engage in sex at a younger ages there is a higher prevalence of STDs among initiates. Through the reuse of unsterilised equipment, the risk of STD infection increases.

n Complications occurring after the circumcision are often attributed to ischaemia (starvation of the blood supply), penile sepsis, gangrene and loss of penile tissue. Often, if left unattended, initiates die from complications.

In the 1990s a programme was initiated in Alice to get traditional surgeons to use surgical scalpels and new blades for each initiate.

Government health policy changed in 2001 with the Application of Health Standards in Traditional Circumcision Act.

Any illegal initiation schools found to be operating are hit with heavy fines for non-adherence.