Italian prisoners with tuberculosis in the early nineteenth century: the experience in the Pianosa prison hospital.

In the late nineteenth century, with industrial growth and the resulting mass urbanisation, tuberculosis represented a plague mainly among the poor social classes. The outdated and crowded Italian prisons (formerly old monasteries) during the early 1900s were insufficient to "host" the multitude of inmates condemned or waiting for judgment. Italian prisoners were beset by hunger and poor hygiene facilities. Clothes did not differ between winter and summer. The Criminal Sanatorium of Pianosa was officially inaugurated in 1907, but from the 1860s it had been set up to host an agricultural penal colony. Here we report the excellent results obtained between 1907 and 1909 in the management of tuberculosis among prisoners in Pianosa, where surgery was also available. In those times, climate therapy with an enriched and varied nutrition was the only effective treatment for tuberculosis. Overall, of the 913 prisoners housed in Pianosa in that period and according to the acknowledged scientific criteria, the following results were achieved: complete cure in 182, improvement in 416, mild amelioration in 94, worsening in 80, no change in 20. The number of prisoners who died or were transferred to another prison is unknown. The case series of the prison hospital in Pianosa may be reconstructed thanks to data published by the Director Roberto Passini. The better outcome of the prisoners in Pianosa, in comparison with inmates of other Italian institutions, was due both to treatment standards (climate, nutritional, hygienic, and surgical) and to the proportionally longer period of stay in Pianosa for prisoners with already confirmed detention periods.