Assessing the HIV care continuum among transgender women during 11 years of follow‐up: results from the Netherlands’ ATHENA observational cohort

Abstract Introduction Transgender women are at increased risk of acquiring HIV. Earlier studies reported lower retention in HIV care, antiretroviral therapy uptake, adherence and viral suppression. We assessed the stages of the HIV care continuum of transgender women in the Netherlands over an 11‐year period. In addition, we assessed new HIV diagnoses and late presentation, as well as disengagement from care, between 2011 and 2021. Methods Using data from the Dutch national ATHENA cohort, we separately assessed viral suppression, as well as time to achieving viral suppression, among transgende... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Vita W. Jongen
Ceranza Daans
Ard van Sighem
Maarten Schim van der Loeff
Kris Hage
Camiel Welling
Alex von Vaupel‐Klein
Martin den Heijer
Edgar J. G. Peters
Marc van der Valk
Peter Reiss
Maria Prins
Elske Hoornenborg
the ATHENA observational HIV cohort
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2024
Reihe/Periodikum: Journal of the International AIDS Society, Vol 27, Iss 8, Pp n/a-n/a (2024)
Verlag/Hrsg.: Wiley
Schlagwörter: transgender women / transgender people / HIV / HIV acquisitions / HIV epidemiology / HIV care continuum / Immunologic diseases. Allergy / RC581-607
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29171741
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.26317

Abstract Introduction Transgender women are at increased risk of acquiring HIV. Earlier studies reported lower retention in HIV care, antiretroviral therapy uptake, adherence and viral suppression. We assessed the stages of the HIV care continuum of transgender women in the Netherlands over an 11‐year period. In addition, we assessed new HIV diagnoses and late presentation, as well as disengagement from care, between 2011 and 2021. Methods Using data from the Dutch national ATHENA cohort, we separately assessed viral suppression, as well as time to achieving viral suppression, among transgender women for each year between 2011 and 2021. We also assessed trends in new HIV diagnoses and late presentation (CD4 count of <350 cells/µl and/or AIDS at diagnosis), and disengagement from care. Results Between 2011 and 2021, a total of 260 transgender women attended at least one HIV clinical visit. Across all years, <90% of transgender women were virally suppressed (207/239 [87%] in 2021). The number of new HIV diagnoses fluctuated for transgender women (ptrend = 0.053) and late presentation was common (ranging between 10% and 67% of new HIV diagnoses). Of the 260 transgender women, 26 (10%) disengaged from care between 2011 and 2021 (incidence rate = 1.10 per 100 person‐years, 95% confidence interval = 0.75−1.61). Conclusions Between 2011 and 2021, less than 90% of transgender women linked to HIV care were virally suppressed. Late presentation at the time of diagnosis and disengagement from care were common. Efforts are needed to identify barriers to early HIV diagnosis and to optimize the different steps across the care continuum for transgender women.