Publications

Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision: Logistics, Commodities, and Waste Management Requirements for Scale-Up of Services

Dianna Edgil, Petra Stankard, Steven Forsythe, Dino Rech, Kristin Chrouser, Tigistu Adamu, Sameer Sakallah, Anne Goldzier Thomas, Jennifer Albertini, David Stanton, Kim Eva Dickson, Emmanuel Njeuhmeli
11/29/2011
English
Full Document (pdf 358.6 kb)

The PEPFAR-funded Health Policy Initiative Costing Task Order, together with UNAIDS, sponsored a collection of articles focusing on voluntary male circumcision (VMMC) published in the online Plos Medecine and PloS ONE journals. The collection is titled, Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention: The Cost, Impact, and Challenges of Accelerated Scale-Up in Southern and Eastern Africa.

The collection highlights how scaling up voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention in eastern and southern Africa can help prevent HIV, not only at individual but also at community and population level, as well as leading to substantial cost savings for countries as a result of averted treatment and care costs. The full collection can be accessed online at: http://www.ploscollections.org/VMMC2011.

This study presents estimates for the full costs of implementing the Accelerated Saturation Initiative (ASI; Soka Uncobe [Circumcise and Conquer] in SiSwati) program to circumcise 152,000 men in Swaziland, including costs previously overlooked in estimates. This study suggests that, for the Swaziland ASI VMMC program, procurement, supply chain, and waste management costs nearly double the previously estimated cost per VMMC procedure. That is, the supply chain and waste management costs for this program are nearly as high as the costs of the equipment and staff needed to do the circumcisions. Because these costs were not taken into account during the planning stages of Swaziland?s ASI VMMC program, the initial needs assessment for this program underestimated the actual costs by about US$8 million. Although the magnitude of this underestimate cannot be generalized to other settings, this analysis emphasizes the importance of considering the contribution of supply chain and waste management to costs when determining the future resource needs of VMMC programs. Moreover, it provides a framework to help program planners and policy makers estimate the costs involved in the scale-up of VMMC programs in other priority countries.

Related Publications:	Click the group name to view all related publications. Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention: The Cost, Impact, and Challenges of Accelerated Scale-Up in Southern and Eastern Africa
Document Type:	Conference Papers/Journal Articles
No. of Pages:	10
Country:	Swaziland
Keywords:	Finance & Costing, Operational Policy, HIV/AIDS, Prevention, Strategic Planning, Male Circumcision

Last Updated 3/8/12

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