Female prisoners represent between 2% and 10% of the total prison population in the world. During the last ten years, the number of female prisoners has increased. In some other countries, overall trends in the numbers and percentages of female prisoners are more complex, while the percentage of the total prison population has remained consistent. On average, 5% of the total prison population consists of women.  In general, “Women have been particularly effected. Female prisoners are a minority but a non-deniable group in all national prison regimes. This

Requires equal opportunities and females’ equal access to social, economic and cultural rights. Up until today, female prisoners have been at a disadvantage in obtaining information about their rights as prisoners, gaining access to vocational and educational training, and adequate health care in prisons. The number of females in prison is lower than the number of males, but the proportion of drug users among female inmates is higher than among male inmates. Injecting drug use with contaminated injecting equipment is particularly prevalent among female prison populations. HIV among female prisoners is higher than that of incarcerated males. Reasons for this include that the majority of females in prisons are members of social groups marginalized not only on the basis of gender, but also on the basis of race, class, sexual orientation, disability, substance use, and occupation. Female prisoners often have more health problems (in number and severity) than male prisoners. Many suffer from chronic health conditions resulting from lives of poverty, drug use, family violence, sexual assault, adolescent pregnancy, malnutrition, and poor preventive health care.
HIV among female prisoners
Women are more at risk of contracting HIV from sexual activities than men are, due to a number of factors: The main groups at risk are young women engaging in at-risk sexual behavior with multiple partners, engaging in intravenous drug-use, have a history of drug-related offences and are involved in prostitution.
Concomitant TB
There is an interaction between TB and HIV that tends to worsen both conditions among co-infected individuals. HIV-infection is the strongest risk factor for development of active TB after transmission of TB. Active TB has been associated with faster evolution to profound immuno-suppression among HIV-infected. TB is the main cause of death among people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. Both infections are concentrated in some common high-risk groups like the drug users and prisoners or ex-prisoners and this association can lead to a dramatic increase of co-infection in these segments of the population. The effects of TB on HIV are multiplied due to the presence of MDR TB, which increases mortality and the period of infectiousness and decreases treatment success rates.

In prison settings the risk of transmission of TB is multiplied due sharing the same airspace, overcrowding, lack of proper infection control measures and lack of rapid diagnostic services. The increasing number of drug users and HIV-infected in the prisons does farther increase this risk. In countries where there is drug user driven HIV epidemic combined with MDR-TB epidemic a close and comprehensive cooperation between the HIV/AIDS program and TB control program especially in prison setting is compulsory in order to prevent a possible dual MDR TB/ HIV epidemic, which would as a consequence increase both HIV and MDR TB in the whole society.

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