[Latent Tuberculosis Among Professionals with and Without Direct Contact with Inmates of Two Penitentiaries in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, 2008]

Introduction: For groups of persons who remain confined, mainly in prisons, tuberculosis has always been a serious health problem, due to its transmission respiratory, putting in risk the professionals that work in a prison, especially the communicants of inmates.

Objective: To know the infection prevalence for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis among the employees communicating and no communicating of inmates of two prisons of the State of São Paulo.

Methods: This study consisted of the application of an individual questionnaire; application and reading of the tuberculin skin testing (TST); sputum smear examination and culture; identification and drug sensitivity testing; in the period of March the June of 2008.

Results: 277 (48.3%) employees of the 574 existent were examined. They were applied and read 248 (89.5%) TST (PPD-RT23 - 2TU/0.1 mL); of them, 194 were in employees that worked directly with the inmates, that is, were communicants and 54 were no communicants. Among the communicants, 62.4% presented induration larger than 10 mm and among the non communicants, 38.9% presented this measure of TST. There was not positive in the sputum smear examination or in the culture, that is, tuberculosis illness case was not identified enters the professionals, at the moment of the research.

Conclusion: This study suggests that the communicant employees have a larger risk of if they infect for the M. tuberculosis and consequently of being sick of tuberculosis.