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

• Autor(a) principal: Vieira,Amadeu A.
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Ribeiro,Sandra A., Siqueira,Ana M. de, Galesi,Vera M. N., Santos,Laedi A. R. dos, Golub,Jonathan E.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista brasileira de epidemiologia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-790X2010000400009
• topic: Prevalence; Tuberculosis; Pulmonary tuberculosis; Respiratory symptomatic; Active case finding; Prisoners

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.