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Organization Contact Information | |
| Name: | Calcutta Rescue |
| Street 1: | 85,Collin Street |
| Street 2: | 3rd. & 4th.Floor |
| City: | Kolkata |
| Province: | West Bengal |
| Post Code: | 700016 |
| Country: | India |
| Phone: | 91 33 22491520 |
| Organization Email: | info@calcuttarescue.org |
| Web Site: | http://www.calcuttarescue.org |
| Other Online Presence: | |
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General Information | |
| Board Constituency: | Developing Country NGO |
| Is your organization legally registered in your country: | Yes |
| If yes, please enter your registration number: | |
| Organization Type - Primary: | Non-Governmental Organization |
| Organization Type - Secondary: | Other Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) |
| Organization Description: | |
| In 1979, a British doctor, Jack Preger M.B.E. started a street clinic on Middleton Row to treat the most needy and poorest of the people living in the streets and slums of Kolkata & rural west Bengal.. Tourists, who passed by, stopped to help him and, when they returned home, set up groups of volunteers in their own country to raise money to support Dr Jack’s work. Calcutta Rescue is now a registered non-governmental organization with 150 + Indian staff including Doctors, Teachers and other professionals. It provides free medical care, education and other benefits to the most deserving, needy & poor in Kolkata and rural West Bengal irrespective of age, sex, caste or religion. Calcutta Rescue has four clinics providing medication, nutrition, and health education. The services fill the gap where public medical services do not provide some medicines for the poorest people. It provides both basic and long–term treatments and some costly life-saving surgery and expensive medicines including treatment for HIV, along with other benefits of food, clothing and social support. The Calcutta Rescue Outreach Programmes of the Street Medicine service and the Preventive Medicine Programme called Targeted Initiative Program (TIP) face poverty head-on. Our teams take health care directly to the bustees/slums and shacks of the destitute in specially equipped ambulances. TIP reaches out to slum children up to 12 years old with prophylaxis and treatment for Vitamin A deficiency and parasitic infestations like worms, lice and scabies. The Street Medicine Programme treats people immediately in the ambulance or refers more serious cases to Calcutta Rescue’s own clinics or government health services. Education is a key to improving the future for the poorest communities. So, Calcutta Rescue supports 450+ students in the different mainstream (formal) schools who once started in the Calcutta Rescue (non-formal) schools. There are two non-formal schools providing starter education for children aged 4 to 6 years w |
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| Do you know about the UNHLM declaration: | |
Specializations / Areas of Work | |
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Advocacy Delivery of health services and care |
Other Organization Information | |
| Total number of staff in your organization: | 100 + |
| Number of full-time staff who are directly involved with TB: | 1 - 5 |
| Number of part-time staff who are directly involved with TB: | 6 - 10 |
| Number of volunteers who are directly involved with TB: | 1 - 5 |
| How did you hear about the Stop TB Partnership: | Stop TB communications |
| If you were informed or referred by another partner of the Stop TB Partnership please tell us who: | |
| Why do you wish join the Stop TB Partnership: | Information on developments within the TB world |
| Are you a member of a Stop TB national partnership: | No |
| Are you in contact with your national TB programme: | Yes |
| Please tell us how your organization is contributing to your country's national TB control plan: | |
| Tuberculosis (TB) continues to remain one of the most pressing health problems in India. India is the highest TB burden country in the world, accounting for one fifth of the global incidence - an estimated 1.96 million cases annually Approximately 2.9 million people die from tuberculosis each year worldwide; about one fifth of them in India alone . Nearly 500,000 die from the disease – more than 1000 per day–one every minute. It is a disease of poverty affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years. The vast majority of TB deaths are in the developing world. Left untreated, each person with active TB disease will infect on average between 10 and 15 people every year and this continues the TB transmission. Overall, there were an estimated 390 000–510 000 cases of MDR-TB (primary and acquired) arising in 2008, with the best estimate at 440 000 cases. Calcutta Rescue gives TB & Drug Resistance TB patients the chance to be cured from this terrible disease that afflicts millions of people in some of the poorest regions of the world. Because tuberculosis is highly contagious, we understand that this pandemic requires a massive mobilization of people and resources to address it. Through health education and treatment, we are hoping to affect not only the individual patients themselves but also entire communities as a whole. |
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Geographical Reach | |
| Which country is your headquarters located in: | India |
| Which countries do you do operate in: (This includes countries you are conducting activities in) |
India |
Contribution | |
| Please tell us how your organization will contribute to the Global Plan to Stop TB by briefly describing its involvement in any of the areas of work listed below: | |
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TB Care Delivery: Calcutta Rescue emphasizes on patient and family counseling. Making sure that the patient understands the importance of treatment compliance and how the family plays a role in this process is imperative. We check regularly with the patients on the toxicity of the drugs, to avoid any psychological problems that could occur and adjust the medication as necessary. If the overloaded hospitals discharge our patients, we send the patient to their local DOTS provider If the DOTS provider refuses to supervise the treatment, a health worker is sent to the patient administer the drugs. The patient, once risk of contagion is obsolete, is trained on how to properly take their medication and the patient is monitored bi-weekly by our doctors at the clinic. Regular counseling and monitoring of the progress prevents any of the avoidable risks from occurring. Calcutta Rescue understands that before medical treatment and investigations begin, we must spend some time motivating patients to be fully compliant throughout the treatment period. The entire process can be very long and tiring, but it is absolutely imperative that the patient continues regularly with the treatment. The patients should be explained about the side- effects of drugs along with irreversibility of some of the effects. The health of an MDR-TB patient is always at a critical point, and the risk of not following through, could be extremely detrimental. After counseling, the patients are given health education to expand their awareness about the disease and the consequences not only for themselves but any person who they may come into contact with. We try to involve the family as much as possible, to support the patient and encourage them to complete what is necessary on a timely basis. Family members are motivated and made to take responsibility of the patient regarding drug intake, time to time investigations and updating patients clinical condition. Calcutta Rescue also provides extra monetary assistance to the families in form of transport allowance and also provide nutritional benefits and other benefits in the form of garments, plastics etc. Only after this first step has been taken, do we begin the treatment process. Drug-Resistant TB: Calcutta Rescue(CR) is providing treatment for Multi Drug Resistant TB (MDR) cases since 1995. In 2008 CR treated the 1st case of XDR TB referred from a government hospital of Kolkata. Patient came in a very critical condition but under strict supervision of CR he was finally declared cured on 27.7.10. From 2008 till 31st March 2012 out of 127 cases of MDR TB CR has treated 17 (13.4%). cases of XDRTB. Out of 17 cases 10 patients are continuing till date. 5 pts expired, 1 cured and card was cancelled for 1 pt. Average age of these patients is 29 yrs. Out of 10 continuing pts 8 pts are admitted in Government TB Hospital and for other 2 pts medicines are supervised by the local DOTS provider and family member. All these 17 pts are sero-negative for Human Immuno Deficiency Virus. Making a drug regime for an XDR pt is very difficult as most of the pt. becomes resistance to regular 2nd line drugs. The cost of treating an XDR TB pt. (INR 3959 per pt/month) in comparison to a MDR TB pt. (INR 3274 per pt/month) is high. Moreover, sputum culture for AFB (Acid Fast Bacilli) is done for XDR patients every 3 months (cost INR 780) till completion of treatment. Any of these pts may require repeat drug sensitivity test at a cost of INR 7500 if they become culture +ve during course of treatment. Generally their treatment duration is longer (> 24 months) and outcomes are in general poorer than for non XDRTB pts. Very close monitoring is needed for not only each of these pts but also their close contacts. Although Govt. of India has started providing drugs free of cost for MDRTB pts in some selected areas but they have no provision yet for treating XDR pts. So, pts who are failure cases of MDR treatment are referred to CR. |
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Declaration | |
| Declaration of interests: No conflicts of interest were delacred. | |
| Application date: | July 20, 2011 |
| Last updated: | July 10, 2014 |