Rapid Scale-up of an Antiretroviral Therapy Program Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Nine States, Nigeria, March 31, 2019-September 30, 2020.

In 2018, an estimated 1.8 million persons living in Nigeria had HIV infection (1.3% of the total population), including 1.1 million (64%) who were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) (1). Effective ART reduces morbidity and mortality rates among persons with HIV infection and prevents HIV transmission once viral load is suppressed to undetectable levels (2,3). In April 2019, through the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR),* CDC launched an 18-month ART Surge program in nine Nigerian states to rapidly increase the number of persons with HIV infection receiving ART. CDC analyzed programmatic data gathered during March 31, 2019-September 30, 2020, to describe the ART Surge program's progress on case finding, ART initiation, patient retention, and ART Surge program growth. Overall, the weekly number of newly identified persons with HIV infection who initiated ART increased approximately eightfold, from 587 (week ending May 4, 2019) to 5,329 (week ending September 26, 2020). The ART Surge program resulted in 208,202 more HIV-infected persons receiving PEPFAR-supported ART despite the COVID-19 pandemic (97,387 more persons during March 31, 2019-March 31, 2020 and an additional 110,815 persons during April 2020-September 2020). Comprehensive, data-guided, locally adapted interventions and the use of incident command structures can help increase the number of persons with HIV infection who receive ART, reducing HIV-related morbidity and mortality as well as decreasing HIV transmission.

Clinical outcome of teeth treated endodontically with a nonstandardized protocol and root filled with resilon.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of root canal treatment in private practice and filled with Resilon. Immediate postoperative radiographs were compared to follow-up radiographs of at least 1 year in 82 randomly selected primary endodontic cases treated according to a nonstandardized protocol but root-filled with Resilon. The Periapical Index (PAI) and the Clinical Impression of Healing (CIH) quantification procedures were used to determine the status and change in the condition of the teeth. The PAI evaluation revealed that 90% of the teeth that were healthy at the initial reading (PAI, 1or 2) maintained the condition at follow-up evaluation. Of those teeth that were unhealthy (PAI, 3-5) at the initial reading, 73.3% were judged healthy (50%) or improved (23.3) at the last evaluation. In contrast, the proportion of healthy or healing with the CIH evaluation was 89.4%. The findings of this study support the contention that regardless of treatment protocol, healing rates for Resilon-filled teeth in private practice were within the range of success rates for studies with uniform treatment techniques mostly in university settings with gutta-percha root filling.