Prevalence of Tuberculosis Among the Prisoners of Mazandaran

Regarding the high frequency of tuberculosis in jails, this survey studies the prevalence status of the disease in jails of Mazandaran province to provide useful suggestions for tuberculosis control. The present descriptive study was carried out by in 2008. The prisoners of Mazandaran province jails (2405 cases) comprised the research population. The data was collected by a questionnaire containing 9 demographic and 11 specific questions. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics. 2405 questionnaires were completed (response rate=96.2%). Of which, 2227 (92.6%) were men and 178 (7.4%) were women. The average age of the participants was 26.8±1.24. The majority (41.9%) of them were prisoners for more than six months. Seven prisoners (0.3%) were infected by HIV, 136 (5.7%) had a prolonged cough for more than 2 weeks, and 2 sputum smear (0.1%) was positive for TB and 2 (0.1%) were reported to have extra pulmonary tuberculosis. According to the results of the present study, the prevalence rate of positive pulmonary smear tuberculosis in Mazandaran jails is 17.7 times higher than the normal of population. Therefore, continuous developing and implementing an effective plan for tuberculosis control is necessary for jails.