Epidemiologic study of TB in Iranian prisons during April-September 2004

Despite the advances in medical technology has resulted in decrease of occurrence of infectious disease, tuberculosis is still the most common cause of mortality. Prisoners are at high risk of acquiring TB. The most common reasons are overcrowding, malnutrition, high-risk behaviors, addiction and HIV infection. In current study, the epidemiology and prevalence of TB in prisons in Iran was investigated.

Checklists were obtained from prisons throughout of Iran and data were then analyzed to determine the prevalence of TB among the prisoners.

In this study, 339 patients were diagnosed with TB. All patients were older than 15 years. All except two patients were male. In 83 cases, TB infection is along with HIV.

Because of unfavorable environment of prison the level of TB in prisons is higher than that of the civilian population. Additionally high levels of MDR-TB in prisons have been reported from some studies. The results obtained from current study indicated the prevalence of TB also is high in Iranian prisons and in 83 persons it was along with HIV infection which can make difficulty in treatment and increase the risk of MDR. These results show the important role of control and treatment of TB in prisons.