The summaries are free for public
use. The Chronic Liver Disease
Foundation will continue to add and
archive summaries of articles deemed
relevant to CLDF by the Board of
Trustees and its Advisors.
Abstract Details
Reaching trans women in San Francisco for efforts to eliminate hepatitis C
Christopher J Hernandez1, Dillon Trujillo1, Caitlin M Turner12, Sofia Sicro1, Joaquin Meza1, Mackie Bella1, Emperatriz Daza1, Francisco Torres1, Willi McFarland12, Erin C Wilson12
Author information
1Center for Public Health Research, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco, CA, USA.
2Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Abstract
Hepatitis C infections continue to rise among marginalized communities, including among transgender people. Efforts to eliminate hepatitis C from San Francisco require successful identification of active HCV infections among transgender women and subsequent treatment of infection. This secondary analysis of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Transgender Women (NHBS-Trans) Study aims to identify areas of improvement in the hepatitis C care cascade and associated barriers that preclude successful treatment. One hundred and eighty (89.6%) trans women reported being previously screened for HCV, 47 (26.1%) reported being diagnosed with HCV, twenty-eight of the 47 (59.6%) who reported HCV diagnosis also reported that they received HCV treatment, with and 24 of the 28 (85.7%) reported completing their treatment. Overall, we detected HCV antibodies among 23.9% of participants and detected HCV RNA among 6.0%. This suggests that despite improvements in screening for HCV, active cases may not be successfully treated. Efforts to reduce barriers to HCV care should be prioritized, with heightened consideration for trans-specific needs.