TITLE:
Active Case Finding of Pulmonary Tuberculosis among Prison Inmates in Aba Federal Prison, Abia State, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Emmanuel O. Ekundayo, Okorie Onuka, Gidado Mustapha, Mazi Geoffrey
KEYWORDS:
Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Prisons Inmates, Active Case-Finding, Sputum Smear Microscopy
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.5 No.1,
March
5,
2015
ABSTRACT: Background: Conditions
in prisons favour rapid transmission of Mycobacterium
tuberculosis and progression to tuberculosis (TB) disease, resulting in
higher prevalence rates of TB in prisons than in the corresponding general
population. However, in many developing countries with high TB burden, passive
case-finding remains the usual approach to case detection of TB in prisons. On
this premise, the Abia State TB Control Programme conducted a pilot study to
assess the contribution of active case finding to tuberculosis control in Aba
Federal Prison. Methods: The inmates were clinically screened and those with
symptoms suggestive of TB cases were tested by sputum smear microscopy.
Results: Out of the total number of 477 prison inmates present in the prison at
the time of study, 449 (94.1%) were clinically screened for history of cough of
2 weeks’ duration; 52 (10.42%) met the inclusion criteria for sputum smear
microscopy. Eleven of the 52 (21.15%) tested for acid fast bacilli (AFB) by
direct smear light microscopy were positive for AFB. One inmate was on
anti-tuberculosis therapy; this with the 11 cases detected in the course of
this study gave a total of 12 inmates of Aba prison with active pulmonary
tuberculosis at the time of this study. This gives a minimum point prevalence
rate of 2405 cases per 100,000 prison inmates. Four of the 11 prison cells had
at least one smear positive case with 7 of the 11 cases concentrated in two
cells. The age group of 25 - 34 years had the highest number of sputum positive
cases. Conclusion: Active case-finding resulted in detection of 11 new cases of
sputum positive tuberculosis (an increase in detection rate of 1100%) and the
prevalence of sputum positive TB is very high (2405 cases per 100,000 prison
inmates) in Aba prison. There is an urgent need to institute more effective TB
case-finding and control in the prison.