Screening of jail inmates for HIV and tuberculosis

Objective: to evaluate prevalence of infections among pakistani male population of camp jail lahore. study design: this study was designed to reach these jail inmates to estimate the burden of tb and hiv among them and examine their living conditions at jail to determine their vulnerability to acquisition of these infections. since worldwide the number of people infected with both hiv and tuberculosis is rising and to make the global situation worse,tuberculosis has formed a lethal partnership with hiv. duration: june 2009 to august 2009 methods: we examined 1027 jail inmates and blood samples were collected .all collected blood samples were tested for tuberculosis antibodies and hiv antibodies with chromatographic assay. results: seroprevalance for,hiv and tuberculosis was 2.4% and 4.25% respectively. overall prevalence of these infections was 6.65%. conclusion: it was evaluated that in jail inmates there is high incidence of hiv and tuberculosis as compared to general population. regular testing is required to identify infected people and especially screening for these diseases should be mandatory for new inmates. in addition strict preventive measure must be adopted to curtail spread of these viral and contagious diseases.