“If we want to see its impact in reducing new HIV infections, then we need to reach about 20 million men during the period,” he emphasized.

By the end of 2010 more than 550,000 men and boys had been circumcised in 13 countries identified as priority areas for VMMC scale-up in Eastern and Southern Africa. But this only represents about 3% of the 20.3 million male circumcisions needed to prevent many more millions of new HIV infections.

There are over 260, 000 men who have been circumcised in Nyanza since 2008 through Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) reducing chances of HIV infection by 60%, Dr. Kioko disclosed.

Apart from VMMC another notable intervention against HIV/AIDS undertaken with zeal is the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission expected to reduce the transmission rate from 13% to below 5% by 2013, he said.

Kenya’s national VMMC program has reached more than 350,000 men and boys with the services in three years. Experts have established that potential predictors of a country’s early adoption of VMMC include having a national policy, a focal person an operational strategy and a pilot project with Government involvement.

However, the findings found that such early adoption did not necessarily result in rapid scale-up. Looking at Kenya’s experience the most successful national program also exhibited ownership and sustained leadership at all levels, in addition to adoption of a national policy and strategy anticipated to translate the research work into a viable program.

Leaders from international organizations during a recent conference in Nairobi announced a framework expected to spur and coordinate rapid expansion of VMMC services in 14 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The framework was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank in consultation with respective Ministries of Health.

According UNAIDS Executive Director; Michel Sidibé cited Kenya’s experience as a model for rapid expansion of VMMC services. The MCC-NASCOP forum provided an opportunity to discuss the lessons drawn from Kenya’s experience to inform future VMMC scale-up. Dr. Ying–Ru Lo of World Health Organization (WHO) department of HIV/AIDS opened the MCC-NASCOP session with a call to action.