Rakai health sciences program formerly the Rakai project has unveiled a new method of male circumcision in which one does not shed a single drop of blood.

James Nkale demonstrating how the ring works. Photo by Ali Mambule

The program chief investigator Godfrey Kigozi said that although the method was still in its early stages, they have already got a positive response and support from the public.

“The method is called Prepex and it was invented in the United States of America. We have so far tested it on about 50 clients but we need 250 more to confirm its acceptability but so far it has worked properly with those who used it,” Kigozi said.

He explained that the only challenges it was facing included some pain experienced during the removal of the ring at the end of the operation after six days and the bad smell it produced from four to six days of operation.

“But the pain is short lived and we are working round the clock to find means of relinquishing it completely,” Kigozi told New Vision in an interview adding that the smell would be done away with by finding means of dealing with enzymes that come with a dead skin. He also warned of a big danger in case a client attempted to remove the ring himself.

He said that many men were afraid of going for circumcision because they feared experiencing pain during injections, cutting off the foreskin and looking at blood flowing from their private parts.

“With this new method, the pain is very minimal, there is no injection administered and no blood would be lost during the process,” he said adding that when the method is opened for the public after the research, more men were expected to go for circumcision.

Dr. James Nkale Menya the project supervisor explained that Prepex was much easier and cheaper to use if compared to other methods of circumcision. “We place a gadget fitting on a man’s penis not erected, turn the foreskin on to it and place a rubber band on the over turned foreskin to block supply of blood. Another gadget is again placed on top and the client is left to go but he must return after six days to remove everything,” Nkale said.

This procedure according to Nkale dies not require an operation theater like the case with other methods including the shangring and it is none surgical. He said that once the process is started, the client would not change his mind until the end of the six days when he would return to the health worker to remove the gadgets placed on his penis.

“After the six days, the health worker would remove the gadgets and the over turned foreskin which would be dry by then will fall off automatically. The client will walk away but would not engage himself in sexual activities for the next three weeks,” he said.

However, Nkale said that there were men whose penises are too small or too big to fit in the available gadgets used in this method and to such people, it would not be applicable meaning that they would be going in for the other methods.

By Ali Mambule, The New Vision