NCJ Number
137429
Journal
National Prison Project Journal Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1992) Pages: 1-4,21
Date Published
1992
Length
5 pages
Annotation
As tuberculosis has reemerged as a major public health problems, prisons and jails have become the ideal environments for the spread of the disease.
Abstract
Although the advent of the HIV virus has been blamed for the resurgence of tuberculosis, other factors which have contributed to the increasing rate include the decline in government-funded TB control programs, the increase in homelessness, and a rise in drug abuse. Control programs are essential to supporting the treatment and care of TB patients by providing supervised therapy, careful contact followup, community health surveillance and treatment, hospitalization, medications, and compliance enhancement to assure drug taking and followup. Coinciding with the TB epidemic in major urban areas is an increase in the number of patients infected with drug-resistant strains of the disease. In 1991, 13 inmates and one correctional officer died from a drug-resistant strain of TB. As a result, all staff and inmates are now tested to provide a baseline of data. Prisons conditions such as overcrowding, poor ventilation, and constant movement of prisoners facilitate TB transmission. HIV infection, which is at a high rate among inmates, is the strongest risk factor yet identified for developing TB. TB also touches the communities into which prisoners are released. Some of the procedures recommended for inmates with TB include: increased medication regimes, negative pressure isolation rooms, strictly enforced infection control procedures, and x-rays for every HIV-positive inmate. 1 table and 10 references