Tara Klamp not to used outside KZN

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The Tara Klamp has been criticised by researchers for being more painful and causing a higher level of infection than medical male circumcision using forceps.

Pillay added that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had been commissioned to investigate KwaZulu-Natal’s use of the Tara Klamp, and this study was now finished.

‘We are not going to expand the use of the Tara Klamp beyond KwaZulu-Natal,’ said Pillay. ‘But we are likely to conduct a larger randomised control trial with the WHO to test three devices used in circumcision, the Tara Klamp, the Shang ring and the Ipex, which doesn’t need an anaesthetic.’

The health department aims to circumcise 500 000 men by the end of this year, but has only done 140 120 so far, mostly in KwaZulu-Natal, according to the health department’s Dayanund Loykissoonial.

Circumcision cuts a man’s risk of getting HIV by over 50 percent, according to three large research studies.

Some 150 doctors and 400 nurses have been trained in circumcision and the Treasury has allocated R260-million to the programme for the current financial year, said Loykissoonial.

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