THE winter months are normally associated with South Africa's traditional circumcision season.

So it is not surprising that clinics offering male circumcision are also experiencing a surge in the number of boys who want to be circumcised this winter.

In just one week after the start of the winter school holidays more than 1000 boys queued up for circumcision at the Zola and the Bophelo Pele clinics in Soweto and Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg.

By 11am on the morning of my visit more than 30 boys had already been circumcised at the Zola Clinic for medical male circumcision.

Thembinkosi Ngwenya, a senior doctor at the clinic, said: "This morning, so far, we have done 35. By 12 we will have done 50. By 3pm we will have done 85. By 5pm we will have done 120".

The surge was expected, said Dino Rech, medical director of the Centre of HIV and Aids Prevention Studies, which runs the Zola and Orange Farm medical circumcision clinics in partnership with the government.

"The clinic's always busy and in normal months we average around 50 boys a day," Rech said.

From June 27 to July 1 the Zola Clinic for medical male circumcision performed 559 circumcisions, while the Bophelo Clinic in Orange Farm has circumcised 525 boys. The demand has meant that working hours and staff turnaround have had to increase. Most of the publicity for the clinics is by word of mouth. - Health-e News