Russia's lower house of parliament approved a bill Thursday that would require doctors to report tuberculosis cases and would subject TB patients to mandatory medical observation.

The bill, approved unanimously by the State Duma lower house, would also require prisons to report the release of inmates afflicted with tuberculosis.

Once registered, patients would be required to show up for regular examinations at tuberculosis control centers. Those with advanced cases could be hospitalized against their will, according to the bill.

Tuberculosis has spread in Russia's overcrowded prisons, where some 100,000 inmates among the nearly 1 million prison population have the disease, and 10,000 die of it every year, officials say.

To take effect, the bill would have to be approved by the upper house and signed by President Vladimir Putin.