Assessment of tuberculosis among male prisoners in Shiraz central prison, south of Iran

Prisons play an important role in the prevalence of Tuberculosis (TB) in a region. This study aimed to determine the situation of TB in high-riskmale prisoners in Shiraz central prison of Fars province in southern Iran.

This cross-sectional study (June-October 2018) was conducted on male prisoners in Shiraz central prison, southern Iran. According to 4 criteria, the prisoners were determined as high-riskprisoners for TB, and para clinical tests included three sputum samples and chest radiograph were performed for them. Then, the high risk and low risk participants were comparedin terms of demographic characteristics and past medical history.

Among 2,995 prisoners, only 108 (3.6%) had at least one of the high-riskcriteria. Butafter performing further TB tests for these prisoners, no prisoners with TB disease werefound.The high-risk prisonerswere statistically older than low-risk prisoners (38.30±9.74 vs. 35.17±9.62, P=0.001).Also, the length of incarceration was statistically different in both groups (P=0.002), and drug abuse was more in high-riskgroup (P<0.001). Moreover, high risk prisoners used cigarettes/day more (14.87±11.55 vs. 9.71±9.09, P<0.001), but both groups werenot different in term of the marital status (P=0.519), educational level (P=0.662), job (P=0.39), and nationality (P=0.342).

Our results showed that none of the high-riskprisoners for TB had positive test. The length of incarceration, drug abuse, smoking, as well as age weremore in high-riskprisoners in comparing low risk group.