There’re Many Reasons

If you look at the statistics you will see that there is a high prevalence of HIV in the trans community. The 2015 Transgender Survey reports found,

While 1.4% of all respondents were living with HIV—nearly five times the rate in the U.S. population (0.3%)—the rate among Black respondents (6.7%) was substantially higher, and the rate for Black transgender women was a staggering 19%.

When you are struggling to live you do what you have to in order to survive.

Identifying HIV Clusters to Help Transgender Women With HIV
Contagion Live
By Laurie Saloman MS
February 28, 2019

Although men who have sex with men (MSM) are understandably a main focus of efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat HIV, another group—transgender women—is emerging as a population that needs more attention when it comes to preventing the spread of HIV. A new study in The Lancet HIV demonstrates that transgender women are often connected to each other, as well as to heterosexual men, in specific geographical clusters of people with HIV.

Investigators from the University of California, San Diego and Imperial College London analyzed the viral gene sequences of people living with HIV in Los Angeles with data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. They discovered that out of 22,398 people studied, 8133 of them (36.3%) were sorted into 1722 separate clusters that contained between 2 and 116 people. People in a single cluster were found to have HIV gene sequences that were closely related, suggesting a pattern of transmission within the cluster.

Although transgender women were often clustered with each other, investigators also discovered that they were frequently clustered with cisgender men identifying as straight.

The 2015 Transgender Survey reports found that trans people who were rejected by their family and kicked out of the family were…

• More than twice as likely to be living with HIV (3.5%) than those who were not kicked out of the house (1.5%).
• The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control found that a number of factors increase transgender people’s vulnerability to HIV, including social rejection and stigma, inadequate access to transgender-competent care, barriers to accessing education, employment, and housing, and high rates of intimate partner violence.
• Respondents were asked whether they had ever been tested for HIV, aside from testing obtained through the blood donation process. More than half (55%) of respondents had been tested for HIV, in comparison to 34% of the U.S. adult population.

The article goes on to say,

Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, told Contagion®. However, the investigators don’t know if transgender women are passing the infection to heterosexual men or vice versa. “We cannot distinguish between the transmitting and recipient partners,” she said. The team’s findings are significant because transgender women are disproportionately affected by HIV. According to the investigators, this population has an HIV rate of 27.7%, surpassing the rate even for MSM, which stands at 25%. African-American transgender women are more likely to be infected with HIV than not, with prevalence in this group as high as 56.3%. However, many transgender women are unaware they have HIV. According to the investigators’ report, testing in several major cities revealed a 12% positive rate among those who had never been tested before.

The rate of testing seems to be at odds with each other.

Folks… this disease is an equal opportunity disease, it doesn’t discriminate and we are in a high risk community.

Moral to the story… get tested if you are having sex! Get tested if you are sharing needles!