Edward Ngwemba

Research Project

Uptake of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision among Men attending a Sexually Transmitted Infections Clinic in Lilongwe Malawi.

The UNC Project is currently conducting an implementation project utilizing several strategies to increase the uptake of VMMC among men attending the Bwaila STI clinic. Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) is one of the key pillars for HIV prevention. As Malawi aims to meet the target to have 80% of eligible males aged 10-49 years circumcised in priority districts by 2025, men attending STI clinics are a low-hanging fruit.

The study use implementation science methods and strategies to increase the uptake of VMMC to more than 60%, the country target, among men attending a STI clinic at a secondary health care facility in Lilongwe, Malawi. The study will evaluate the effect of multi-faceted intervention on the uptake of VMMC. The intervention includes use of transport Re-imbursement for men who will undergo VMMC, Intensified health education by VMMC champions and women, use of a cell phone SMS Tracing to remind clients of their VMMC appointment and use of clinic Escorts to accompany clients from the STI clinic to the VMMC clinic for circumcision or appointment scheduling (the RITE intervention). We will assess the acceptability and feasibility of the RITE intervention among uncircumcised men attending a STI clinic.

Edward is primarily responsible for coordinating data collection in ODK and EMR, Data management in MS Excel and Stata and Participating in data analysis and report writing of the results.