This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Tuberculosis/ Other Mycobacterium  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Incarcerated youth are said to be at high risk for tuberculosis (TB) infection,¹ but this population has not been well studied. Guidelines recommend that only youth meeting specific new screening criteria be tested for TB.² In a group of incarcerated adolescents, we determined the number of cases of active TB disease and latent TB infection (LTBI), risk factors for infection, and documented compliance with therapy after release.

Methods

We retrospectively studied youth 10 to 17 years of age at the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center in Texas and at 4 county facilities used for long-term incarceration (1-6 mo; mean, 3 mo) between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2004. Youth who are adjudicated to long-term facilities are required by the State of Texas to receive a tuberculin skin test (TST).

The TST was considered positive if induration was 10 mm or more. Youth who are TST-positive undergo chest . . . [Full Text of this Article]

William Leigh Risser, MD, PhD
william.l.risser@uth.tmc.edu

Kim Connelly Smith, MD, MPH
Department of Pediatrics
University of Texas-Houston Medical School