Access to health care is a growing concern for immigrants living in the U.S. This brief report describes how immigrants may be deterred from seeking health care services, and how this may affect the continuity of HIV care and prevention. The report also features recommendations for HIV care providers who serve immigrant communities.
Transgender men and others on the transmasculine spectrum have been largely excluded from HIV prevention research, policy, and practice. The Transmasculine Sexual Health and Reproductive Justice Research Study was part of a community-based participatory research project that engaged diverse transmasculine people and their healthcare providers to better understand their health needs, concerns, and priorities, including factors related to HIV prevention. This report focuses on findings related to HIV and STIs, sexual partners and networks, HIV/STI testing, access and uptake of PrEP, safer sex information and consent, and barriers to seeking healthcare.
After years of decline, sexually transmitted infections are increasing at alarming rates. The national rate of reported primary and secondary syphilis was over four times greater in 2016 than it had been in 2000. Syphilis cases increased by 18% between 2015 and 2016 alone. Much of this growth is attributable to cases among men who have sex with men. Between 2017 and 2013, the number of new syphilis cases among MSM grew annually (75%). MSM now account for half of all syphilis cases and 80% of these cases among men.
In 2015, California saw over 4,700 new cases of HIV. Nationally, in the same year, California led the nation for HIV transmissions via injection drug use and among men who have sex with men who inject drugs. Other key groups impacted by both epidemics include women, people of color, those who are homeless and youth. Research has found that people who inject drugs from these subgroups are 4-29 times more likely to have an HIV-positive diagnosis. In California, researchers have estimated that a single safe injection site in San Francisco can prevent 3.3 new HIV transmissions per year and would ... [Read More];
On November 8 and 9, 2017, the California HIV/AIDS Policy Research Centers (CHPRC) convened two groups of public health department and community leaders to develop concrete strategies for increasing uptake and retention of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
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