 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
Bristol-Myers Squibb: A Global Commitment To Fight HIV/AIDS
At Bristol-Myers Squibb, we have long understood the need to act forcefully against the HIV/AIDS pandemic - alone and in partnership with others. Bristol-Myers Squibb's effort to address the global HIV/AIDS pandemic is best demonstrated through its own focus on leadership in science, on an enduring commitment to expand access to treatment and care for HIV/AIDS patients and on programs that exhibit compassion. For more information, please click here (PDF: 944k) GLOBAL HIV/AIDS INITIATIVE The global HIV/AIDS pandemic requires a vigorous response that focuses on enhancing the capacity of countries and communities to treat the disease and to support and sustain those affected by it. In addition to SECURE THE FUTURE in sub-Saharan Africa, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation supports many programs in other parts of the world and provides unrestricted biomedical research grants to support basic research efforts in HIV/AIDS. MOBILIZING LESSONS LEARNED: HIV INITIATIVES OUTSIDE OF AFRICA Mexican Pediatric HIV/AIDS Initiatives Receive Support Working since 1999 with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has provided $528,000 in grants to help establish and support a pediatric HIV/AIDS clinic for children at the Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez in Mexico City. The core components of this partnership are: training for Mexican pediatricians in HIV/AIDS at the Baylor College of Medicine; a physician exchange program with the U.S.; the creation of educational materials on pediatric HIV treatment; and a Spanish-language curriculum on the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission. The Baylor Curriculum Goes to Russia and the Ukraine: Training Health Care Professionals to Deal with HIV Some of the world's fastest-growing rates of HIV infection can be found in Russia, Ukraine and other former states of the Soviet Union. Among the most critical needs in these areas is proper training for health professionals. Since 2001, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has been actively working with the Ministry of Health and other partners in Ukraine to provide such training. In 2003-2004, the foundation supported work with a $60,000 grant to adapt a special curriculum created by the Baylor AIDS Institute for health care professionals who work with HIV patients to the special needs in Ukraine, an area where up to a half million people-or 1% of the population-are believed to be HIV-positive. In 2005, the responsibility and a second grant of $60,000 for training was transferred from Baylor to a local nongovernmental organization (NGO), the International HIV/AIDS Institute based in Kiev, which will conduct 8 training sessions for physicians and nurses. Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS: Training Workplace-Based Health Care Professionals in HIV/AIDS Care in Russia and the Ukraine Russia and Ukraine have emerged as new epicenters in the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, registering two of the world's fastest growing rates of new infection. Independent experts from the region and the West estimate that up to 1.5 million Russians may be infected, representing over 2 percent of its adult population. Ukraine faces a similar crisis, with an estimated 500,000 cases of infection. If current trends persist, epidemiologists warn that up to 8 million Russians and 5 million Ukrainians could be infected within a decade, reflecting adult prevalence rates of 10 % and 8%, respectively. In both countries, the epidemic is growing fastest among the general population aged 15-30. The Foundation and Company have provided $175,000 in funding to support the implementation of HIV/AIDS-related workplace education and non-discrimination programs and activities to mobilize corporate executives and labor leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The project incorporates the Baylor Curriculum for Healthcare Professionals training into TPAA's HIV@Work Employee Education Program running presently in businesses in Russia and the Ukraine. Miramed: School-based HIV/AIDS Education Pilot for Russia Despite the rising rates of HIV infections among young people in Russia, education and prevention programs are not taught in the public schools. To address this issue, Miramed, a NGO focused on women's rights and health, has undertaken an initiative to pilot the curricula it has developed for lifeskills, sex education and HIV/AIDS education for use in orphanages in two school districts in Russia. For this work, the Foundation is providing a three year grant of $265,000. AIDS Treatment & Care Office of China Center for Disease Control: Training and Community Mobilization Project The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has witnessed very alarming HIV epidemics among local injecting drug users where about 90% of all drug users are injecting. In some parts of the region HIV infection rates among IDUs vary from 20% to 70%. In addition, 63% of prostitutes in this region reported never using a condom. Today, infections are growing rapidly among the general population. Based on this situation, it is necessary to advance a capacity-building effort for AIDS prevention and control of Guangxi among professional medical personnel and to create an environment of community support, care and acceptance for people living with HIV/AIDS. The goals of the project are: 1) to establish a formal training center for medical personnel in Nanning and Liuzhou on HIV/AIDS treatment and nursing; and 2) to further establish the community health education, public education and community supports for people living with HIV/AIDS in Guangxi and Lizhou. For this project, the Foundation is providing a grant of $698,000 to the China CDC. Life Skills and HIV/AIDS Education for Children in Bangkok Slums The Foundation provided a $100,000 grant to the Thai Red Cross to bring life skills and HIV/AIDS education to children and youth living in inner Bangkok slums. The project mapped slum communities for children and youth, formed partnerships with local leaders, assessed needs and awareness and provided education programs in order to reduce this highly vulnerable population's risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Pediatric AIDS Support in Vietnam Although national prevalence remains below 1% in Vietnam, there are already some 2,500 HIV-infected children there. Many of these children have been abandoned and are currently in orphanages. Unfortunately, because the AIDS pandemic is relatively confined in Vietnam, the country's health care workers have minimal experience with the disease and how to treat it. With grants to date totaling $140,000, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is supporting an effort to train Vietnamese health care professionals in pediatric HIV/AIDS treatment using the HIV Curriculum for Health Professionals designed by the Baylor College of Medicine resulting from the SECURE THE FUTURE program. Family Planning, HIV/AIDS and Sex Education for Teenagers in Thailand With some 10 million teenagers living in Thailand, it is clear that they will play an important role in the future of that country. Yet many are engaging in sexual activities at earlier ages, including risky activities that can lead to disease transmission, including HIV/AIDS. To help better inform teenagers of the risks and of alternative behaviors, the Foundation is supporting efforts by the Population and Community Development Association in Thailand that will provide family planning, HIV/AIDS and sex education for teenagers -- particularly female teenagers -- in 30 schools in and around Bangkok as well as in several other schools in other provinces in the region. Teachers and students will attend a camp where a core group of volunteers will be trained to work on a variety of related activities in the community. Mobile vans will visit schools to provide education and awareness activities. Materials will be created and programs, ranging from hotlines to drop-in centers and web sites will be initiated. MIGAS: Patient "Navigators" for HIV-Positive African Immigrants in France African immigrants to France often have difficulty navigating many social services, particularly health care services. For HIV-positive immigrants, the stigma of the disease as well as cultural and language barriers compound the difficulty considerably. MIGAS -- a nonprofit organization made up of health care professionals, social workers and people from the African community -- is committed to enhancing the ability of immigrants to access HIV/AIDS care. With the support of a $112,000 training grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, MIGAS will prepare peer educators to reach out to the African community and to partner with health care providers and social workers at Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris to better address the needs of this severely underserved and vulnerable population. Leeway, Inc.: Continuum of Care for Vulnerable People Living with HIV/AIDS With the evolution of AIDS in the United States from a terminal diagnosis to a chronic disease, Leeway is now serving individuals who are living longer, whose medical conditions are stabilized, but who are not fully capable of living outside a structured environment. Among the challenges of these vulnerable patients are poverty, substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, co-morbid disabilities and aging with HIV. Many of these patients, with clinical oversight, transitional housing, and social supports could be moved back into the community. But because these components of care for those with AIDS do not exist, Leeway's patients continue to occupy beds, thus limiting access for those with greater medical needs and costing the system more in Medicaid expenditures. To address this care and resource allocation issue, Leeway is undertaking a project to implement an extension of the continuum of care for people living with HIV/AIDS -- in particular, for the most vulnerable of Connecticut's HIV positive -- that focuses on intensive case management and new models of supportive housing. The foundation of this new array of services (home care, outpatient mental health, adult day health and substance abuse services, home delivered meals, nutritional counseling, disease self management education, etc.) and residential settings would be a Medicaid funded community intensive case management system for HIV/AIDS patients, supported by a Home and Community Based Services 1951c Medicaid HIV/AIDS waiver. Following the model of these services used for patients with serious mental illness, a nurse practitioner with expertise in HIV/AIDS care and related comorbidities would direct the care plans of each participant and determine which community services are needed for each individual resident, organize the appropriate providers and direct the community care services for the clients. For this project, the Foundation has provided a grant of $459,000. “FREEDOM TO DISCOVER” GRANTS FOCUS ON BASIC RESEARCH IN HIV/AIDS $1.5 million in unrestricted grants under the company's pioneering “Freedom to Discover” no-strings-attached biomedical research grants program has been awarded to researchers at three leading biomedical institutions to support basic research efforts in HIV/AIDS. At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Dr. Joseph Sodroski is working on HIV envelope glycoproteins and their role in the viral entry process. Dr. John Moore, at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York, focuses on viral entry as well but also has a major emphasis on prophylactic strategies and vaccines. Dr. Richard D'Aquila of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville is conducting both basic and clinical research on mechanisms of drug resistance.
|
|
Download Acrobat® Reader to view PDF files >>
|
