Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation: Secure the Future
Since 1999, the BMS Foundation's SECURE THE FUTURE® initiative has worked with our partners in Africa to provide care and support for communities affected by HIV. This initiative is also expanding our work in HIV, tuberculosis, non-communicable diseases specifically pediatric, women's, lung and AIDS-related cancers in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Objectives
The Secure the Future Cancer African Network for Care, Education and Research (CANcer) Program Goal is to establish a Pan-African collaboration to improve community awareness, data and care for unmet needs for prevalent and AIDS Related Cancers on the continent.
Our key objectives are:
- To add to an African body of knowledge regarding pediatric, female and lung cancer awareness, care and support in different cultural and resource settings; health systems and within sites with varying risk-profiles and economic development
- To leverage Secure the Future legacy and partnerships to improve the understanding of the lung cancer burden, pathways and access to early diagnostic services by strengthening health systems to address barriers to cancer care.
How We Are Helping People Living with HIV in Africa
Since 1999, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has made a positive and lasting difference in the lives of more than 1 million women and children living with HIV through its support of more than 250 projects in 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Several factors have helped transform HIV and AIDS from an acute health crisis to a manageable chronic disease in some countries, including disease awareness and education, expanded treatments and improvements in healthcare system capacity. However, people living with HIV in Africa are now dying from diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and cervical cancer at greater rates.
Building on the legacy of its groundbreaking work in HIV/AIDS, the Foundation’s SECURE THE FUTURE initiative is now demonstrating the positive impact that communities can have on preventing the transmission of TB and reducing deaths from cervical and breast cancers by leveraging the HIV experience and infrastructure especially among women.
Take a look at our video „Secure the Future at 20“ – celebrating 20 years of revolutionary treatment for children and women affected by HIV and Aids (LINK)
Current major initiatives focus on:
- Integrated community-based HIV and TB prevention, diagnosis, care and control through the engagement of non-governmental and other civil society organizations, a collaboration between BMSF and World Health Organization’s Global TB Program to improve global documentation and standardized reporting of contributions by community-based activities to identifying new TB cases as well as treatment adherence and outcomes;
- HIV and cervical and breast cancers, BMSF collaborated with Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon initiative in Tanzania and Ethiopia and also plans for large scale demonstration projects in Kenya, Swaziland, South Africa and Lesotho for awareness, prevention, early detection and the “See and Treat” approach for pre-cancer lesions; and
- In 2016, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Secure the Future evolved its primary focus to address cancer including lung cancer as a major focus while continuing to address important female cancers namely cervical and breast cancers.
- A special program to address childhood cancers and blood disorder, GLOBAL HOPE was also launched in 2016
Results and milestones
10 sites across four Sub-Saharan Africa collaborate to improve the understanding of lung cancer burden, pathways, and access to early diagnostic services for lung cancer by addressing the barriers of cancer care through working with communities and the Ministries of Health in the identified regions of Kenya, South Africa, Swaziland, and Tanzania
- 80% of clients diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer; 16% with stage 3 and 4% with stage 2.
- Stage 2 clients increased from 6 in year 1 to 14 in year 2 (133% increase in clients diagnosed early)
CAPACITY BUILDING
- 1,503 HCW trained on lung screening, diagnosis, treatment and palliation through CME’s;
- 3 Pulmonology Fellow at The Lung Laboratory, (Wits)
- 3 PhD students (UKZN and Wits)
- 8 Masters students at University of KwaZulu-Natal (1 graduated, 3 graduating in September 2019, 3 submitting in September 2019)
- 2 articles published & 8 submitted for review to journals.
- 776,485 people educated/reached with lung cancer awareness
Over the past 20years, Secure the Future® has funded more than 240 projects in 22 African countries, with special emphasis on community treatment support programs, care for children and building health care infrastructure. It is the first and still largest corporate philanthropic commitment to fighting the disease on the continent.
- More than 300,000 mothers and children through the BMS Children’s Clinical Centers of Excellence or outreach sites staffed by the Pediatric AIDS Corps in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine
- 3634 clients screened for lung cancer
- 546 clients screened found with lung mass
- 545 clients with lung mass referred for diagnosis
- 459 patients received diagnosis
- 377 patients diagnosed with lung cancer
- 358 lung cancer patients referred for treatment
- 328 patients initiated on treatment
Geographic Reach
- Africa
Disease Area
- Infectious and Parasitic Disease
- Non-communicable diseases
Target Population
- Children
- Women
- People with low incomes
- Rural populations
Partner organizations
Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon
Swaziland Breast and Cervical Cancer Network
Ministry of Health Eswatini
Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI)
Right to Care
Breast Cancer Net
Consortium of Christian Relief & Development Associations (CCRDA)
Rutgers Institute for Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowships
World Health Organization (WHO)
Additional resources
Geographic Reach
Africa
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Ethiopia
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Senegal
- South Africa
- Swaziland
- Uganda
- United Republic of Tanzania
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Disease Area
Infectious and Parasitic Disease
- HIV/AIDS
- Tuberculosis
Non-communicable diseases
- Cancer
- Breast Cancer
- Cervical Cancer
- Childhood Cancer
- Lung Cancer