Abstract
Detecting Tuberculosis in Prisons: Switching Off the Disease at Its Source.
Highlights
There are few sources of tuberculosis worthier of intervention than tuberculosis disease arising in prisons
Unless tuberculosis disease is diagnosed and treated within the prison, on release, prisoners are more likely to return to high risk transmission networks and fuel the epidemic further (5)
The authors intensively and prospectively screened consenting prisoners in three Brazilian prisons for tuberculosis using symptom screening, GeneXpert, sputum culture and chest radiography with Computer-Aided Detection for Tuberculosis (CAD4TB). They retrospectively applied four alternative less comprehensive screening algorithms to the data to determine which was most cost effective per case detected. They found that 84% of tuberculosis cases were detectable by a single sputum sample for Xpert MTB/RIF, and that systematic screening with this method had a cost per case of US$234
Summary
There are few sources of tuberculosis worthier of intervention than tuberculosis disease arising in prisons. Unless tuberculosis disease is diagnosed and treated within the prison, on release, prisoners are more likely to return to high risk transmission networks and fuel the epidemic further (5). Prison settings often compound the problem by facilitating transmission through overcrowding, inadequate ventilation, incomplete treatment, late case detection and high prisoner turnover (6).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
