United States CDC Accelerates HIV Epidemic Control In Nigeria

<p><em>United States CDC pushes to minimize HIV epidemic<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has learned that despite the COVID-19 pandemic&comma; through U&period;S&period; President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief &lpar;PEPFAR&rpar;&comma; the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention &lpar;CDC&rpar; continues to help the Government of Nigeria to accelerate efforts toward HIV&sol;AIDS epidemic control&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;CDC Nigeria is the country office of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention &lpar;CDC&rpar;&comma; with a vision of public health excellence for healthy Nigerians&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;A scientific article titled Rapid Scale-up of an Antiretroviral Therapy Program Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — Nine States&comma; Nigeria&comma; March 31&comma; 2019–September 30&comma; 2020&comma; released on Thursday&comma; March 26&comma; in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report &lpar;MMWR&rpar;&comma; published by the Atlanta-based CDC Headquarters&comma; details how CDC Nigeria established an Antiretroviral Therapy &lpar;ART&rpar; Surge program&comma; which accelerated progress toward HIV epidemic control in nine Nigerian states during 18 months&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;An analysis of data from the CDC’s ART Surge program shows that the number of people living with HIV receiving PEPFAR-supported ART increased by 208&comma;202 in the nine Nigerian states from April 2019 to September 2020&period; The states are Benue&comma; Delta&comma; Enugu&comma; Gombe&comma; Imo&comma; Lagos&comma; Nasarawa&comma; Rivers&comma; and the Federal Capital Territory&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Through PEPFAR&comma; CDC’s ART Surge program resulted in an eight-fold increase in the weekly number of newly identified people with HIV who started treatment&period; The ART Surge continued despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The program included weekly collaborative data reviews to create locally adapted interventions and the use of incident command structures for program flexibility and accountability&period; Engagement and support from civic and local community leaders helped combat HIV stigma and eliminate other barriers to treatment&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to the lead author of the study&comma; who serves as the United States CDC Nigeria Acting HIV Program Director&comma; Dr&period; Emilio Dirlikov&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This is a significant milestone in reaching HIV epidemic control in Nigeria&period; More people receiving treatment means much lower rates of HIV-related illnesses and deaths&period; Furthermore&comma; HIV transmission is reduced to zero among those people living with HIV who have undetectable viral load&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dr&period; Dirlikov recognized the tremendous efforts of the CDC Nigeria implementing partners&comma; healthcare workers in ART clinics across the country&comma; as well as the Government of Nigeria at national and state levels that continued to support the move towards HIV epidemic control in Nigeria&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;As of December 2020&comma; United States CDC&comma; through PEPFAR&comma; provides free HIV treatment for more than 769&comma;000 people living with HIV throughout Nigeria&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;