Social Network Strategy to Promote HIV Testing and Linkage to HIV Services among Young men who Have sex with men and Transgender Women in Thailand.

Abstract

Background: Social network strategies (SNS) assumes that people in the same social share similar HIV risk. Methods: This study evaluated SNS to promote HIV testing of young men who have sex with men (YMSM) and transgender women (YTGW) aged 15-24 years. "Recruiters" referred their 'network members' (NMs) to clinic. NMs were provided HIV testing. Proportions of first-time HIV testers and number of NMs were analyzed. Results: Between April 2021 to March 2022, 83 recruiters referred 202 NMs. Median age of NMs was 19 years (IQR 17-20), 62% were YMSM. One-hundred-and-twenty-four NMs (61%) were first-time HIV testers. YTGW recruited more NMs per recruiter (5.4 vs 1.4, p  =  0.002). HIV prevalence was 3.0% (95% CI 1.1-6.4). Thirty-one-point-three percent of NMs at HIV risk initiated oral HIV preexposure prophylaxis. Conclusions: SNS is a good strategy to reach adolescents at risk of HIV infection. More than half of NMs were first-time HIV testers.