Commentary: How HIV advocacy can be used to ensure quality transgender health care: lessons from South Africa

Abstract

Based on rights entrenched in the 1996 Constitution for transgender people, South Africa has made substantial progress in advancing transgender health (appendix). We present some insights from the experience in South Africa of how HIV funding augmented the trajectory of transgender health care in South Africa. A 2018-19 survey conducted with transgender women showed high rates of HIV infection, ranging from 45.5% to 63.3%, in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Buffalo City; this finding shows the vulnerability of these women.1 At the same time, HIV funding has provided direct health service provision to transgender people in lower-income countries, alongside HIV activism, which has helped shape the discourse on quality, appropriate, and responsive gender-affirming care as part of primary health-care packages in these countries.