Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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520. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of cases of tuberculosis, TB, recorded in the prison system in the past ten years, by year and the prison that reported such cases; the procedure and protocol the Irish Prison Service follows in reporting and handling a case of TB in the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46303/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Prison Service has advised that tuberculosis is a disease notifiable to Public Health, Health Service Executive, and that statistics on the number of cases are therefore held by the Health Service Executive.

The Department of Public Health in the Health Service Executive manage any incidents of Tuberculosis in prisons and engage in contact tracing if deemed necessary.  The contact tracing involves individual risk assessments, which include the time spent with an infectious case and the vulnerability of individuals being risk assessed.  Any identified infectious Tuberculosis case will be immediately transferred to hospital and will not return to prison until it is confirmed that the patient is no longer infectious.

All prisoners, on reception into prison, either directly from the community or on transfer from another prison, undergo a healthcare committal interview, part of which is a screening for tuberculosis. This screening assesses the principal physical symptoms of active tuberculosis. Should a prisoner present with some of these symptoms then these will be available for the doctor when they examine the prisoner within 24 hours of the committal. If it is suspected that the prisoner may be suffering from active TB, which could be infectious, healthcare staff then make arrangements with the Governor for the prisoner to be isolated, and testing can begin.

Isolation remains in place until the regime of testing, including sputum specimens and chest X-rays, have either shown no TB infection or, if active infection is discovered, referral on to St James’ Hospital for treatment.

Procedures for isolation and stocks of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment are available in each prison. A prisoner who is suspected of having active TB but has no cough, and therefore not infectious, may not be isolated but will be tested. The local Public Health Department, Health Service Executive, is informed if a prisoner is suspected of having active TB.

Latent TB is not infectious, and if a prisoner has latent TB, there will be a referral to Public Health, which will conduct tests and recommend treatment.

The Irish Prison Service is currently revising its procedures for the identification of prisoners who may have TB to ensure that procedures are in line with best practice.  Revised procedures will incorporate the changing risks in society, including free movement in the EU, especially from areas where there is a high incidence of TB, and social risk factors.  The revised procedures will improve awareness of TB amongst staff and prisoners as an ever present risk to encourage vigilance, and therefore make detection and treatment more effective and cross infection less likely.