RESUMO
In an evaluation, cyclical prevalence of active pulmonary tuberculosis was determined in prisoners in Lakan prison in the city of Rasht from September 2001 March 2002. According to ihe guidelines laid down by the who to control tuberculosis, out of 1933 prisoners 816 had one or more of the symptoms as under: I, cough with sputum of more than 3 weeks duration, 2; hemoptysis, 3. precordial pain, 4. significant loss of weight; 5; loss of appetite, 6; night sweats. Early morning specimens [3 direct smear of the sputum for acid fast bacilli from 456 of them] were obtained and 1-2 or none from the remaining who were released during our investigation of these 4were sputum smear positive for AFB for 3 times and who were in different wards 6 inmates had been on treatment for TB thus the period prevalence of pulmonary smear positive TB at the time of the survey was 517/33 per 100000