Health facility data on number of males seeking circumcision services and tested for HIV on site

Data Source(s):

Clinical recording forms and clinic registers.  Data should be disaggregated by health facility type and location.  Both the numerator and denominator can be further disaggregated by facility.  The numerator can be disaggregated by those testing positive and those testing negative.

Purpose:

HIV testing and counseling is one of the elements in the minimum package of male circumcision services.  (See the indicator, Number of institutions delivering minimum package of male circumcision services.)  Evidence of low HIV testing may indicate a lack of quality in addressing the HIV prevention aspect of male circumcision services.  Alternatively, it could indicate high levels of knowledge among clients of HIV test results done elsewhere (which should be recent testing in the case of HIV-negative men).

Issue(s):

For those clients with unknown or unverifiable HIV status who are being offered an HIV test but refuse, or for those with missing test results, they will not be included in the numerator.  Therefore, in these instances, a particular facility may actually be performing better than what is revealed by this indicator’s standard measurement.

References:

WHO & UNAIDS. A guide to indicators for male circumcision programmes in the formal health care system. 2009.  http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/malecircumcision/hiv_mc_me.pdf