Different HIV infection risk behaviors of Transgender people (TG) and Men have sex with men (MSM) in Thailand

Background: HIV prevalence among transgender people (TG) in Thailand is around 10% in 2010. The National AIDS Strategy places MSM and TG in the same category for programming, yet they are very different in terms of needs and risk behaviors. Many data sources do not disaggregate between them and less effort for TG since their prevalence is less. Having exclusive data for TG will help encourage policy makers and program implementers to better prioritize and design policies and programs.

Methods: The data is drawn from the client behavioral monitoring database of the Thai National MSM program. It was collected by outreach workers in 30 provinces from mid-2010 to mid-2011. They were completed after reaching out to clients.

Results: In the one-year period, data was collected on 47,760 clients who were eligible for the study; 10,669 cases (22.3 %) are transgender. TG significantly use condoms less than MSM with both regular (76%/78%) and casual partners (90%/91%) and have less access to VCT (8%/9%) and STIs (5%/7%) services.

Conclusions: Risk and health seeking behaviors of TG and MSM are different. TG programs should be specifically designed to respond to their needs and risk behaviors. TG peer educators should receive more opportunities for capacity building to help maximize the effectiveness of the intervention programs.