Prevalence of patients with respiratory symptoms through active case finding and diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis among prisoners and related predictors in a jail in the city of Carapicuíba, Brazil.

BACKGROUND

Prisons offer a fertile setting for the transmission of tuberculosis due to the presence of many classic risk factors for both infection and disease: overcrowding, poor ventilation, and little sunlight. Prisoners are often malnourished and have poor hygiene and are more likely to have a background of alcohol and drug abuse.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the prevalence of prisoners with respiratory symptoms and pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) through active case finding in a prisoner population of the county jail of Carapicuíba, and to study possible related variables.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study, and respiratory symptomatic individuals (RSI) were detected through active case finding. Socio-demographic data were collected from inmates' judicial history using a specific questionnaire. The RSI provided sputum specimens for detection of acid fast bacilli and culture for mycobacterium identification.

RESULTS

Among the 397 prisoners studied, 154 reported respiratory symptoms for more than three weeks, and were considered RSI; the variables associated with RSI were: having already been tried and incarcerated for more than six months and seven were diagnosed as PTB (1,763 cases/ 100,000 inhabitants).

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of RSI and PTB cases were respectively 39 and 35 times greater than the general population.