Forty-two percent of transgender women with a valid HIV test result have a positive result, with considerable regional and ethnic/racial variation, according to a report issued by the CDC. Investigators presented data from 1,608 transgender women who participated in the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) in 2019 and early 2020, of whom 32% identified as a woman and 87% as a transgender woman. HIV prevalence varied by city, from 21% in Seattle to 58% in Atlanta. HIV prevalence varied by race and ethnicity and was 17% among Whites and among Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islanders and 65% and 62% among American Indian/ Alaska Natives and Black/African Americans, respectively. Of the participants, 17% had no health insurance and 7% had not visited a healthcare provider; 63% had household income at or below the poverty level. Forty-two percent of the participants had experienced homelessness in the 12 months before the interview and 17% had been incarcerated. “These data provide a clear and compelling picture of the severe toll of HIV among transgender women and the social and economic factors—including systemic racism and transphobia—that are contributing to this unacceptable burden,” Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, director of the CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, said in a statement.
