Abstract: Objective  To explore a right way of case-finding of tuberculosis in prison. Methods  Information of tuberculosis patients（155 cases）registered in prison from 2009 to 2012 was collected and the case-finding ways including entry screening, medical treatment due to disease and the annual census were analyzed. Results  Among the 155 active pulmonary tuberculosis cases registered from 2009 to 2012, 79 (51.0%) cases were detected from entry screening, which was the primary case-finding way in prison, 43 (27.7%) cases were found during annual census, and 33 (21.3%) cases were found by medical treatment due to disease. Among the 43 cases which were detected from annual census, 22 （51.2%） cases were asymptomatic.   Conclusion  The combination of different tuberculosis case-finding modes provides a way of finding tuberculosis cases more thoroughly and in time, which avoids TB transmission in prison.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Physical examination, Prisons, Shenzhen city