Study of prevalence and risk factors of some infectious disease among prisoners

Abstract

Everyday 10.4 million people in the world and 5000-7000 people in our country get sentenced by court for their guilty acts and number of people imprisoned is increasing. Risks of communicable diseases increases due to population concentration and risky lifestyles in prisons. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and risk factors of some infectious diseases that are at risk of spreading among prisoners in our country. Out of the closed and open prisons operating in Mongolia, 8 prisons were randomly selected and 800 inmates were included in the survey. Average age of the participants was 37.4±10.2. Of the inmates tested, 15.9% were diagnosed with syphilis, 13.3% with hepatitis B virus infection, 9.5% with hepatitis C virus infection, and 0.75% with tuberculosis. 2.7% had combined infection of syphilis and hepatitis B virus, 1.7% had syphilis and hepatitis C virus infection, 0.3% had hepatitis B and C virus infection, and 0.1% had tuberculosis and hepatitis B virus infection. The prevalence of tuberculosis in prisons is 0.75% or 6 times higher than the general population, syphilis is 15.9% or 15 times higher than the general population, while hepatitis B is 13.3% and hepatitis C is 9.5%, the prevalence of which is close to the prevalence of the total population of our country.