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Organization Contact Information

Name: The Lifeline Clinic, N/a'an ku se Foundation
Street 1: P.O. Box 99292
Street 2:
City: Windhoek
Province:
Post Code:
Country: Namibia
Phone: 0812379459
Organization Email: rebecca@naankuse.com
Web Site: http://www.naankuse.com
Other Online Presence:

Focal Point Contact Information

Salutation: Dr
First Name: Rebecca
Last Name: Taylor
Title: TB clinical specialist
Email: rebecca@naankuse.com
Phone:  

Alternate Focal Point Contact Information

Salutation: Dr
First Name: Sarah
Last Name: McCabe
Title:  
Email: rebeccataylor1@doctors.org.uk
Phone:  

General Information

Board Constituency: Communities
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: Community-Based Organization (CBO)
Organization Description:
We are a charity-run clinic in rural Omaheke. Our aim is providing free healthcare to the San Bushmen, a significantly impoverished and marginalised population.
They have a significant problem with tuberculosis. Recent figures suggest a possible 6 month prevalence of 10%.
Our clinic is mainly a primary healthcare facility, but we play a significant role in TB control. We diagnose TB, treat TB, follow up patients with TB, perform TB contact tracing.
We are also performing research in TB in the San - they are a unique population as their HIV rate is low, and most cases of TB are not HIV-related.
Current research includes properly establishing the prevalence of TB and qualitative research into the patient journey while patients have TB. We are also assessing TB knowledge amongst the population. Hopefully this will highlight areas that require improvement, areas about which we can educate them, and improve the patient journey. There is a very high defaulter rate, and we are aiming to identify the reasons behind that.
We work alongside the state clinic.
 
Do you know about the UNHLM declaration:

Specializations / Areas of Work

Delivery of health services and care
Research and Development

Other Organization Information

Total number of staff in your organization: 6 - 10
Number of full-time staff who are directly involved with TB: 1 - 5
Number of part-time staff who are directly involved with TB: 0
Number of volunteers who are directly involved with TB: 1 - 5
 
How did you hear about the Stop TB Partnership: Internet search
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: Involvement in Stop TB Working Groups
 
Are you a member of a Stop TB national partnership: No
Are you in contact with your national TB programme: No
Please tell us how your organization is contributing to your country's national TB control plan:
We help deal with a very impoverished population, with very poor healthcare seeking behaviour. We help them with all aspects of TB treatment and diagnosis, and are trying to identify ways to improve this.
They can be a difficult group to engage with (not least because they live in very rural areas).
We are treating TB in an area that the rest of the country struggle to reach.
 

Geographical Reach

Which country is your headquarters located in: Namibia
Which countries do you do operate in:
(This includes countries you are conducting activities in)
Namibia

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:

TB Care Delivery:
We help patients access healthcare - we go out to their villages and perform clinics by their homes. We act as their advocates when they attend the hospital. These patients often can't speak the languages required in hospital, and we help them with our translators. They are marginalised against - we help them through the TB diagnostic and treatment process, ensuring they receive appropriate care. We go looking for cases of TB, we don't wait for them to come to our clinic.
We have a specialist TB doctor (a UK trained respiratory consultant) to help diagnose and treat these patients.
We help these patients after discharge from hospital - ensuring their medication supply is up to date. They are very poor and malnourished. We try to give them one meal a day (or a supply of food if they don't live near the clinic)

We are trying to co-ordinate a screening programme.

Laboratory Strengthening:
We have good links with the laboratory at our local hospital. They contact us immediately for any positive results. They did have access to Gene Expert testing, but then this was withdrawn. I have analysed the results when they were using Gene Expert, and established that 37% of cases were diagnosed due to its use. This was presented at the Namibia TB conference, and hopefully will be reinstated.
Due to my training as a respiratory consultant, I am helping diagnosis clinically and radiologically.

Fundamental Research:
We are performing significant research into TB in the San population. We are obtaining significant epidemiological data. We are analysing the prevalence of TB in the San, performing qualitative research into the patient journey, and assessing the education / TB knowledge of the general population.
We are also trying to establish a screening programme.
I have also performed research into results obtained from Gene Expert use.

Declaration

Declaration of interests:
No conflicts of interest were delacred.

Application date: March 2, 2016
Last updated: April 14, 2016