An Open Label, Blinded Assessor, Trial Comparing Odor Levels Due to Different Hygiene Methods With PrePexTM

Overview

The PrePex is a WHO prequalified medical device for adult male circumcision for HIV prevention. The Government of Rwanda was the first country to implement the PrePex and acts as the leading Center of Excellence providing trainings and formal guidelines. As part of the Government's efforts to improve the PrePex implementation, it made efforts to improve the psychology acceptability of the PrePex by men and thus to increase the uptake with VMMC in sub-Saharan Africa. Some men who gone through the PrePex procedure complained of foreskin odor while wearing the PrePex 3-7 days after it is placed. This complaint was identified as potential risk for the PrePex uptake. Researchers from Rwanda assumed there is a possible relation between the level of foreskin odor to the patient foreskin hygiene technique. It was speculated that a patient that follows an appropriate foreskin hygiene technique while wearing the device will have a significantly lower foreskin odor on day 7 than a patient who does not follow such technique. The Government of Rwanda decided to investigate those assumptions in a scientific way and conduct a study to test different hygiene cleaning methods in order to increase the acceptability of PrePex and mitigate the odor concern.

Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) is a one-time, low cost intervention that shown to reduce men's risk of HIV infection by 53%-60% and by up to 73% in post-trial observation. Numerous papers on the topic have been published over the past two decades to elevate HIV prevention awareness, especially in sub-Saharan countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have endorsed innovative approaches to VMMC uptake in settings where HIV prevalence and incidence is high but male circumcision (MC) prevalence remains low in 14 target countries. Recent modelling commissioned by President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and UNAIDS have agreed on an action plan to reach 80% coverage of VMMC in the 14 countries by 2015, this will entail performing roughly 20 million adult VMMC by 2015, averting approximately 3.36 million new HIV infections and saving US$16.5 billion. The PrePex became the first medical device for adult male circumcision to receive WHO prequalification as an alternative to the conventional surgical circumcision methods already recognized by WHO. The PrePex VMMC procedure is bloodless and requires no injected anesthesia, suturing, or sterile setting, it applies controlled radial elastic pressure to the foreskin between a rigid Inner Ring and an Elastic Ring to cut off distal blood flow. After 7 days, the necrotic foreskin and the device are removed. The Government of Rwanda was the first country to implement the PrePex and acts as the leading Center of Excellence providing trainings and formal guidelines. As part of the Government's efforts to improve the PrePex implementation, it made efforts to improve the psychology acceptability of the PrePex by men and thus to increase the uptake with VMMC in sub-Saharan Africa. PrePex researchers from Rwanda have assumed that there is a possible relation between the level of odor from the foreskin to the foreskin hygiene technique. It was speculated that when a patient follows an appropriate foreskin hygiene technique while wearing the device, the odor before device removal (day 7) will be significantly lower than the odor of the foreskin of a subject who follows a less effective foreskin hygiene technique. Providing scientific evidence of the direct relation between odor and specific foreskin hygiene technique, will allow VMMC implementing bodies to create a comprehensive and effective PrePex related hygiene guidelines and reduce the potential of complaints from men therefore, increasing the acceptability rate. A randomized, controlled, blinded study to assess the effectiveness of 3 different foreskin hygiene techniques was conducted at Rwanda Military Hospital Kigali, Rwanda during November 18th to December 4th, 2013.