Primary Prophylaxis for Prevention of TB in Prison's Populations

Despite being a known disease of mankind over 9000 years, tuberculosis (TB) is still a major public health problem in developing countries, mainly due to so-called highly endemic sites, such as prisons.

It is Infectious disease, with airborne transmission, TB can present both the active or latent form. Despite the biological aspect of transmission, unhealthy environmental conditions (room without direct sunlight, poor ventilation and overcrowded) and individual factors (malnutrition, immunosuppression, use of alcohol and other drugs) have significant influence on transferability and infectivity.

With the discovery of drugs active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, it was observed a reduction of disease incidence in the world. Despite this declining incidence, World Health Organization (WHO) classifies TB as a public health problem due to the emergence of multidrug strains or extensively resistant to treatment, added to the cases of latent TB reactivation, observed with the advent of HIV/AIDS.

Studies show a direct relationship between the incidence of TB and the prison environment. Nevertheless, the presence of prisons in one location increases the incidence of this disease, indicating that there is an exchange of disease between the prison and the community.

Currently, control of TB in the prison system is based on the tracking of individuals with active TB and / or latent and, in their respective treatment. For the identification of individuals with active disease, it is necessary the recognition of respiratory symptoms (cough mainly) and sputum smear microscopy and sputum culture, and chest X-ray. As the search of individuals with latent form, must be carried to the skin test with Purified Protein Derived (PPD).