Tuberculosis active case-finding interventions and approaches for prisoners in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic scoping review

BACKGROUND: In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), most prisons are overcrowded with poor ventilation and put prisoners disproportionally at risk of exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) and developing TB infection but are mostly missed due to poor access to healthcare. Active case-finding (ACF) of TB in prisons facilitates early diagnosis and treatment of inmates and prevent the spread. We explored literature and described evidence on TB ACF interventions and approaches for prisoners in SSA prisons. METHODS: Guided by the Arksey and O’Malley framework, we searched PubMed, Google Scholar, SCOPUS, Academic search complete, CINAHL and MEDLINE with full text via EBSCOhost for articles on prisoners and ACF from 2000 to May 2019 with no language restriction. Two investigators independently screened the articles at the abstract and full-text stages in parallel guided by the eligibility criteria as well as performed the methodological quality appraisal of the included studies using the latest mixed-method appraisal tool. We extracted all relevant data, organized them into themes and sub-themes, and presented a narrative summary of the results. RESULTS: Of the 391 eligible articles found, 31 met the inclusion criteria. All 31 articles were published between 2006 and 2019 with the highest six (19.4%) in 2015. We found evidence in 11 countries. That is, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Coˆte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia with most 41.9% (13/31) recorded in Ethiopia. These intervention studies were conducted in 134 prisons between 2001 and 2018 using either a single or combination of mass, facility-led, entry, peer educators for routine screening, and exit ACF approaches. The majority (74%) of the studies utilized only a mass screening approach. The most (68%) reported study outcome was smear-positive TB cases only (68%). We found no evidence in 16 SSA countries although they are classified among the three high-burden country lists for TB TB/HIV and Multidrug resistant-TB group. CONCLUSION: Our review highlights a dearth of evidence on TB ACF interventions in most SSA countries prisons. Hence, there is the need to scaling-up ACF interventions in SSA prisons, particularly countries included in the three high-burden country lists for TB, TB/HIV, and MDR-TB.