Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Awards Nine Grants Totaling More than $3.5 Million to Support Care for High-Risk Patients wit...
December 03 2014 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Grants align with World Health Organization
strategy to provide screening and care for vulnerable populations
and regional efforts to raise viral hepatitis prevention awareness
among care providers
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation today announced nine new
grants totaling more than $3.5 million to strengthen efforts in
China and India in the fight against hepatitis B virus (HBV) and
hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection by focusing on the most
vulnerable, high-risk patient populations.
The multi-year grants were made through the Foundation’s
Delivering Hope™ initiative, which has supported more than 40
projects in China and India since 2002.
These new grants align with the World Health Organization’s
(WHO) strategies for reducing the incidence of HBV and HCV
infection through early diagnosis and screening of high-risk
populations, including intravenous drug users and patients
co-infected with HIV and/or tuberculosis. Several focus on
increasing awareness about disease transmission among health care
providers who care for HBV- and HCV-infected patients, who also are
considered at-risk for contracting viral hepatitis.
Viral hepatitis is an urgent public health issue in Asia. In
China and India together, it is estimated that more than 123
million people are infected with chronic hepatitis B and about 60
million with hepatitis C. Although progress has been made in
introducing national policies to control the spread of HBV and HCV,
community and general awareness is considerably low. When left
untreated, viral hepatitis infections result in liver failure and
chronic liver disease that can create a significant burden on
families and society.
Last year, Delivering Hope established three Centers of
Excellence, one in China and two in India, that are scaling up and
replicating achievements in hepatitis awareness, prevention and
treatment from past Foundation grantees, including several
organizations receiving new grants.
“Delivering Hope continues to increase its focus on HBV and HCV
in China and India, the two countries that have the highest
incidence of viral hepatitis worldwide,” said John Damonti,
president, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. “Working with the
Foundation’s Centers of Excellence in these countries, our grantees
are using successful evidence-based practices to support the WHO’s
efforts at raising awareness and prevention of viral hepatitis
among the most vulnerable and high-risk populations, training the
health care professionals who care for these patients and
increasing vaccinations and testing, all of which continue to build
health care capacity and support strong community models for
hepatitis prevention and control.”
The Foundation awarded grants for the following new projects in
China:
- Peking University Education
Foundation – A virtual community for chronic hepatitis patients
will be developed to provide a support system and enhance capacity
of rural health care workers through three functions: electronic
health records, online social media and patients’ personal reported
health status. The online community will empower patients to better
self-manage their disease and provide physicians with valuable
information about how patients live with the disease in real
life.
- Hepatitis B Foundation – Working
with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the
Hepatitis B Foundation will develop a program to empower rural
patients to become actively involved in their disease management
and provide training for rural doctors on hepatitis B diagnosis,
transmission, prevention and disease care and treatment.
- Wu Jieping Medical Foundation –
Based on findings from prior programs and research funded by the
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Wu Jieping will conduct a study of
the present status of HCV treatment and the factors that influence
it and will investigate HCV management and education status among
specific at-risk populations, including those co-infected with HCV
and HIV and/or tuberculosis, children and adolescents younger than
age 19, HCV patients who have cirrhosis, HCV patients with renal
insufficiency and requiring dialysis, and health care workers who
have close contact with these special populations.
- Inno Community Development
Organization – Migrant workers are a high-risk group for HCV
infection because of their low awareness of the disease, high
levels of migration and lack of access to health care. In addition
to education that will encourage self-screening and raise awareness
among migrant workers, Inno Community Development Organization will
establish 10 community-based Hepatitis C Intervention Centers for
the migrant population in Guangdong Province. Based on the
program’s success, it will serve as a model for a wider,
countrywide rollout.
The Foundation awarded grants for the following projects in
India:
- All India Institute of Diabetes and
Research – A pilot program in Mehsana and Sabarkantha, two
rural districts in the state of Gujrat that have experienced HBV
outbreaks, will expand HBV testing in public health care
institutions, make vaccinations more widely available through a
network of nongovernmental organizations and hospitals, and train
health care practitioners on injection safety and universal
precautions against HBV.
- MAMTA – Health care providers,
including doctors, nurses, lab technicians and others who come into
direct contact with hepatitis patients, will receive training in
HBV and HCV risk assessment, disease prevention and risk
management. Community-based programs will target high-risk groups,
including intravenous drug user and their partners, pregnant women
and newborns. A health card will be issued to all high-risk
populations to track their navigation to comprehensive health care
services.
- United Way of Mumbai – To help
prevent disease in the hardest-hit and most-at-risk populations,
medical interventions and extensive community education will take
place in 18 slum areas in Mumbai. The project will adopt HOPE
Initiative’s Center of Excellence School Health Program to educate
students and their families about HBV prevention and control.
- SAMARTH – As new grantees join
the Foundation’s Delivering Hope initiative in India, proper
monitoring and evaluation will ensure that program goals are
achieved. SAMARTH will conduct training activities to strengthen
partners’ ability to self-monitor and evaluate their program’s
progress and provide objective information about program
functioning, methodologies, effectiveness and impact, and identify
potential gaps.
In addition, the Foundation awarded a grant to the World
Hepatitis Alliance to develop a new model of patient group creation
aimed at physicians who treat viral hepatitis and engage them in
creating and sustaining patient support groups. These groups play a
large role in advocacy efforts that have changed health care
policies and practices for a range of diseases around the
world.
The World Hepatitis Alliance will develop an e-learning tool
comprised of a video course and a text-based tool kit that will
focus on the importance of advocacy to promote viral hepatitis
awareness and prevention, the need for patient groups to be
integral to advocacy, advantages to physicians of having strong
patient groups, provide information about creating a patient group
and supporting existing groups and map out support available from
the World Hepatitis Alliance and other sources.
These learning materials will be housed on the World Hepatitis
Alliance website and will be available to be hosted on other
websites, including those operated by major international
hepatology societies, to ensure wide distribution. The project will
include China and India, but is more broadly aimed at the
world.
Delivering Hope has initiated more than six patient empowerment
projects in China and India, reaching more than 6,000 patients.
About the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
The mission of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is to help
reduce health disparities by strengthening community-based health
care worker capacity, integrating medical care and community-based
supportive services, and mobilizing communities in the fight
against disease.
For more information about the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation,
please visit www.bms.com/foundation or follow us on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/bmsnews.
Media:Bristol-Myers Squibb FoundationFrederick J.
Egenolf, 609-252-4875frederick.egenolf@bms.com
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