title: Pulmonary tuberculosis incidence in Turkish prisons: importance of screening and case finding strategies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the burden of pulmonary tuberculosis in 10 prisons mostly located in the Marmara Region of Turkey, and to compare them with the country incidence.
  
  
  METHODS
  All the inmates in ten prisons mostly located in the four cities in the Marmara Region of Turkey were enrolled in this study. Tuberculosis screening was done between January 2006-January 2007. Radiological screening for tuberculosis was performed by the mobile X-ray system and it was followed by bacteriological analysis of sputum for tuberculosis suspects. Four physicians evaluated the X-rays independently.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four thousand six hundred and fifteen prisoners were detected by radiological screening. Three hundred and one (7%) of them were female and 4314 (93%) were male, age range was between 14-72 years. Age ranges of female and male prisoners were 16-59 and 14-72 respectively. 398/4615 (8.6%) were young adults inmates with an age range of 14-18. Radiological abnormalities consistent with tuberculosis were found in 130 chest X-rays and followed by sputum bacteriology. Smear and culture positive pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed in five out of 130, were all male with mean age 33 ± 10 years. Tuberculosis prevalence in the prisons was found to be 108/100.000 which was four times higher than the overall incidence of tuberculosis in Turkey in the year which the present study was conducted.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prisoners are one of the most important risk groups with high burden of tuberculosis in Turkey. This result highlights the need for adequate case- finding strategies in prisons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Diseases, Faculty of Cerrahpasa Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Gül
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Öngen
authors.forename: Şermin
authors.initials: Ş
authors.lastname: Börekçi
authors.forename: Özlem Saniye
authors.initials: ÖS
authors.lastname: İçmeli
authors.forename: Nur
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Birgen
authors.forename: Gülsüm
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karagül
authors.forename: Salih
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akgün
authors.forename: Zeki
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kılıçaslan
authors.forename: Sema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Umut
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008400:Mass Chest X-Ray; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015995:Prevalence; D011329:Prisoners; D011330:Prisons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012307:Risk Factors; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult