Prevalence of smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis among prisoners in North Gondar Zone Prison, northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundPeople concentrated in congregated systems, such as prisons, are important but often neglected reservoirs for TB transmission, and threaten those in the outside community. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of tuberculosis in a prison system of North Gondar Zone.MethodsAn active case-finding survey in North Gondar Prison was carried out from March to May 2011. All prison inmates who had history of cough for at least a week were included in the study. Three morning sputum samples were collected from suspected inmates and examined through fluorescence microscopy. Fine needle aspiration cytology was done for those having significant lymphadenopathy. Pre and post HIV test counseling was provided after written consent. Binary logistic and multivariable analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.ResultsA total of 250 prisoners were included in the survey. Among these, 26 (10.4%) prisoners were found to have TB giving a point prevalence of 1482.3 per 100,000 populations of smear positive TB among the TB suspects. All the inmates who participated in the study volunteered for HIV testing and a total of 19(7.6%) inmates were found to be reactive for the HIV antibody test amongst of which 9(47.4%) had TB co-infection. The prevalence of HIV infection in the TB infected inmates was found to be 34.6% (9/26). From the 26 TB cases identified 12 (46.2%) were having under nutrition (BMI < 18.5kg/m2).ConclusionsThere is high prevalence of TB in North Gondar Prison with possible active transmission of TB within the prison. There was a high prevalence of HIV among the TB suspects. Strong cooperation between prison authorities and the national tuberculosis control programmes is urgently required to develop locally appropriate interventions to reduce transmission. The determinants for poor nutrition in the prison need also further investigation.

Investigation on Pulmonary Tuberculosis Among Bedele Woreda Prisoners, Southwest Ethiopia

“…The prevalence of this study was higher than the studies conducted in Bangladesh 13.8 % [9], Cameron 1.2% [13], Brazil 2.5% [19], Iran 0.91% [20], Malawi 0.7% [22] and North Gonder, Ethiopia 8.9% [23]. On the other hand, the prevalence of this study was lower than the studies conducted in Nigeria 54.2 % [4] and Pakistan 26.3 % [21].…”

Review of the prevalence and drug resistance of tuberculosis in prisons: a hidden epidemic

“…To our knowledge, there are ten published datasets that describe TB in prisons in SSA. These data reported high prevalence and incidence rates of TB compared to the general population [2,5,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]28]. For instance, in an active case-fi nding survey in Madagascar [28], the prevalence of TB in Antananarivo prison was 16 times higher and Zambian prisons [2] had about 10-fold higher incidence than in the general population.…”

“…In this review, we observed that, globally, the level of TB in prisons has been reported much higher than that of TB in the general population [1,2,5,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The WHO estimated a prevalence of TB in prisons about 10-to 100-fold higher than the prevalence in the general population [30].…”

“…While the bulk of studies have focused on the TB situation in prisons in Eastern Europe and the USA, data on the prevalence and incidence of TB in prisons in SSA countries are limited. Based on active screening studies from SSA prisons [2,5,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20], TB prevalence rates were reported several fold higher than the national rates, indicating TB prevention and control in prisons is not well addressed nor integrated into most national TB programmes.…”

Notified tuberculosis among Singapore residents by ethnicity, 2002–2011

“…25,26 Data from this study show that a signifi cantly higher number of Malays were incarcerated in a correctional facility at the moment of notifi cation. However, using available data, it cannot be ascertained whether more Malay inmates had TB, or whether the proportion of Malays was the same among inmates with TB and among all inmates in Singapore.…”