SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF MALE CIRCUMCISION AS
PROPHYLAXIS AGAINST HIV/AIDS IN ZIMBABWE

SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF MALE CIRCUMCISION AS
PROPHYLAXIS AGAINST HIV/AIDS IN ZIMBABWE

ANTONY CHIKUTSA

PRANITHA MAHARAJ

The World Health Organisation recommended the scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision
(VMMC) as an additional HIV prevention method in 2007 and several countries with high HIV prevalence rates
including Zimbabwe have since adopted the procedure. Since then researchers have been preoccupied with
establishing the level of knowledge and acceptability of circumcision in communities that did not traditionally
circumcise. Despite evidence to suggest that knowledge and acceptability of voluntary medical male circumcision is
high, there is also emerging evidence that suggest that uptake of circumcision among men has been below
expectations. The purpose of this study was thus to investigate people’s representations of male circumcision
that may influence its uptake.

BMC Public Health

2015