Papua New Guinea records 10.1% full circumcision (Morris 2016 PMC4772313). A further 47% of PNG men have undergone a traditional longitudinal dorsal-slit cut in which the foreskin is opened but retained — a procedurally and epidemiologically distinct practice. Only the 10.1% who have had complete foreskin removal are circumcised in the sense relevant to HIV prevention. PNG has the highest HIV prevalence in the Western Pacific (~0.7-1.5%) but is not among the 15 WHO VMMC priority countries, which are all in sub-Saharan Africa.
Papua New Guinea records 10.1% total-population male circumcision prevalence (Morris 2016, PMC4772313) — where "male circumcision" means complete foreskin removal. A further 47% of PNG men have undergone a traditional foreskin-cutting practice that does not involve complete removal: the longitudinal dorsal-slit, in which the foreskin is cut open lengthwise but retained. A cross-sectional multicentre study of 861 PNG men (Vallely et al. 2013, PMC3846639) found: 10% circumferential complete removal, 47% longitudinal dorsal-slit, 43% no cutting. The authors explicitly noted that "only 10% reported the complete removal of the foreskin, the procedure on which international HIV prevention strategies are based."
The distinction matters for HIV prevention. The VMMC evidence base (three randomised controlled trials in Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa) established that complete foreskin removal reduces male HIV acquisition risk by approximately 60%; there is no equivalent RCT evidence for partial foreskin cuts. PNG's 47% partial-cut prevalence does not confer the same epidemiological benefit as full circumcision and should not be conflated with it. The inverse geographic correlation between HIV and foreskin-cutting prevalence across PNG's four regions (MacLaren et al. 2015, PMID 26126529) reflects this pattern: Highlands and Southern regions, where cutting is less common and more likely to be absent entirely, have higher HIV prevalence; coastal and island regions, where cutting is more common (including some partial cutting), have lower HIV prevalence.
Papua New Guinea has the highest HIV prevalence in the Western Pacific, with an adult prevalence of approximately 0.7% nationally (2011 baseline; urban areas substantially higher at ~2.7%). Despite this, PNG is not among the 15 WHO VMMC priority countries, which are all in East and Southern Africa. The 15th priority country added in 2018 was South Sudan (PMC7339571); PNG was not included. No formal WHO-designated VMMC programme for PNG has been launched under the ESA framework.
No Papua New Guinea statute, regulation, or ministerial order specifically governs non-therapeutic male circumcision. The dominant traditional practice (the dorsal-slit) is unregulated. No PNG-specific circumcision harm cases or complication series were identified in this research.
