[Tuberculosis in a penitentiary somatic hospital].

Abstract

The results of survey of 750 patients from a general somatic hospital of the penitentiary system, including 288 patients with respiratory diseases, were analyzed. The detection rate of tuberculosis was 12.8% among all the patients and 32.6% among those with respiratory diseases. In the convicts, tuberculosis developed in most cases within the first 1-2 years of their imprisonment and, in short spaces of time, it was frequently accompanied by the significant clinical manifestations, quite often with the acute onset of the disease. Tuberculosis was mainly detected on prophylactic fluorography. Among the clinical forms, there was a predominance of infiltrative and focal tuberculosis and exudative pleurisy.