Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Over 1.4 million males across the country have been circumcised from 2016 to date, Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya has disclosed.
Dr Chilufya says the circumcision of the 1.4 million males will prevent the contraction of over 340,000 new hiv infections by 2020.
Speaking when he received a mobile ambulance from the government of Israel which has the Prepex Male Circumcision machine, Dr Chilufya says his Ministry targets to circumcise Two million males by 2020 through voluntary male circumcision.
He says circumcision reduces the chances of one contracting HIV/AIDS by 40 to 60 percent.
Dr Chilufya states that Zambia has a robust program to attain epidemic control of HIV/AIDS by 2020 and one of the interventions embarked on is voluntary male circumcision.
He says government has however, faced the challenge of the use of various methodologies of conducting circumcisions.
The Health Minister says the mobile ambulance with the prepex machine will therefore help reduce on time for conducting the operation.
Dr. Chilufya has thanked the Israeli government for the bilateral cooperation it has maintained and enhanced with Zambia and the Ministry of Health in particular.
And Israeli Ambassador to Zambia Geshon Kedar has pledged his government’s continued support to the Ministry of Health.
Mr. Kedar says his government has supported Zambia’s health sector in different ways including helping address the cholera outbreak, providing cardiology services to children with heart problems and now the donation of the prepex machine mobile ambulance.