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Objectives: To assess the degree to which Latent Tuberculosis exist among long-term inmates in jail. Study Design: Prospective Cohort Analytic Experimental Quantitative Data. Setting and Period: Jails at Bahawalpur between 2009-2010. Methods: We monitored the Mountex Test of prisoners within 48 to 72 h and those who were 10 mm or more were considered positive and for HIV positive 5 mm criteria were set to declare positive. Group 1-who were in jail for more than a year and those, Group- 2-who were in jail for less than one month. Data was collected on a proforma. Each prisoner had thorough clinical examination with detailed clinical history and Chest X-ray. Inclusion Criteria: 1. All those prisoners who never had tuberculosis in past. 2. All those prisoners who were not on Anti Tuberculous Therapy. 3. All those prisoner whose chest x ray was normal and had no symptoms of tuberculosis. Exclusion Criteria: 1. All those who had tuberculosis in past or were on antituberculous treatment currently. 2. All those who were having chronic cough. Results: Total number of prisoners in group 1 were 298 and number of prisoners in group 2 were 128. Latent tuberculosis was found in total of 31(10.40%) of prisoners in group 1 and none of prisoners in group 2 were having latent tuberculosis. Conclusions: Jail inmates for more than 1 year did show more numbers of latent tuberculosis patients than the new inmates. These results suggest that the close contacts harbor the live tubercle bacilli and in future they may convert into active cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the prevalence of tuberculosis in prisoners of jail. Design: Descriptive study. Place and duration of study: Central Jail Bahawalpur, all prisoners who were jailed in prison were included. It comprises prisoners of ten years (from 1999). Patient and Method: The study population comprised of 2552 prisoners, 2540 were males and 12 were females. The important variables included symptoms of patients (cough, fever, hemoptysis), age, duration of stay in jail and radiological features seen on chest X Ray. Data was analyzed on SPSS. Results: There were 2540 males and 12 females. Forty-six patients had tuberculosis (1.80%) with mean age 37 ± 12.07 years and their mean stay in jail was 802 ± 1118 days. Among prisoners diagnosed as tuberculosis 39 (85%) had cough and hemoptysis was present in 10 (21.73%) of tuberculosis patients along with cough. Chest X Ray showed 22 (48%) had cavitations and bronchiectasis on chest x ray. Upper lobe alveolar infiltrates were found in 19 (41%) of cases while pleural effusion was present in 5 (11%) of tuberculosis patients. Conclusions: The study revealed that tuberculosis exists in jail of South Punjab Pakistan thus represents an important screening site for TB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]