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About 2 million health care workers worldwide are stuck by needles
or experience accidentson the job involving dangerous hospital waste
every year. In an effort to reduce their risk of contracting
life-threatening diseases, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, through
its Delivering Hope program that focuses on Hepatitis B and C in Asia,
recently awarded a $144,500 grant to AmeriCares India to launch a
health worker safety program at Jagjivan Ram Railway Hospital in
Mumbai. The three-year campaign aims to reduce the rate of needle stick
injuries through increased awareness, improved safety supplies and
techniques, and by strengthening standard operating procedures at the
330-bed specialty care hospital.
“Training in safe medical
practices and protecting against highly infectious diseases like
Hepatitis B and HIV are critical to safeguarding the health of medical
workers,” said Dr. Purvish Parikh, VP and managing director of
AmeriCares India. “Our goal is to achieve a 90 percent improvement in
Hepatitis B vaccinations, a reduction in needle stick injuries and,
based upon our findings, develop standard training modules and
procedures that will be shared with other hospitals.”
The health worker
safety program is just one of the ways the Bristol-Myers Squibb
Foundation and Bristol- Myers Squibb, a global biopharmaceutical
company, has supported AmeriCares since 1986. The company has a long
history with all of AmeriCares major programs, from disaster response
and ongoing medical aid deliveries to supporting volunteer doctors
traveling overseas to provide charitable care. Over the years,
Bristol-Myers Squibb has donated $287 million in medicines to
AmeriCares for people in need in 119 countries.
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AmeriCares is approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501 (C) (3) tax-exempt organization, and all donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law. AmeriCares Federal Identification Number (EIN) is 061008595.
