Circumcision procedure offered on CampusTHE WITS Campus Health and Wellness Centre (WCHWC) will be offering a new service of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) from Friday, March 16.
WCHWC has partnered with Care Works, Society of Family Health (SFH), University Research Co. (URC) and the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) to launch Operation Wyze-Up.
As a collective they will be offering HIV testing and medical information and awareness about the circumcision procedure. The free services are expected to take place every week and will begin on March 16, with awareness days taking place from Tuesday, March 13 to Thursday, March 15. According to Dr Lubwama Kigozi, who is the Demand Creation Advisor at URC, Wits is the first university to introduce this project and URC will take it to the University of Johannesburg, followed by other institutions across South Africa.
Acting head of WCHWC, Maggie Moloi told Wits Vuvuzela that there was a need for medical circumcision procedures at the university.
“Males of the Wits community were asking about it from last year. We needed something that focused on males, because there was a low number of males getting tested for HIV,” she said.
SFH, a non-governmental organisation which offers services such as, HIV testing and circumcisions will provide qualified nurses and doctors to WCHWC from hospitals around Johannesburg to perform the procedures.
SFH Project Manager Muzi Nkosi said, “Qualified medical officers from hospitals like Hillbrow, Yeoville and many other hospitals around Johannesburg, will receive extra training in addition to the qualifications they already have.”
Dr Kigozi said that the service is entirely free. “Everything is free and SFH together with the nurses and doctors will come back to the university on day two and day seven after the procedure, to make sure that those who receive it are okay,” he said.
BSc Honours in Biological Sciences student, Flavia Kigozi, said, “I like this initiative because it is inclusive. It is for the whole Wits community and not just students or just for staff. It is voluntary and it is for everyone.”
editor@witsvuvuzela.com
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