Signal Latin American prison tuberculosis notification runs 29 times community rates

Summary

The Men's Wellbeing Initiative reports that incarceration is the main risk factor behind the tuberculosis epidemic in Latin America. Tuberculosis notification rates inside prisons are close to 29 times those found in the surrounding community. Research cited by the Initiative shows that more than 40% of cases acquired in prison become apparent only after a man has been released. In effect, the disease is carried out of prisons into poor neighbourhoods and households with few resources. The Initiative uses this to illustrate how prisons act as amplifiers that return infectious disease to the general population. It supports its broader claim that incarceration is a primary engine of health inequality among men.