Engagement of African men and transgender women who have sex with men in HIV research Guest Editors: Trevor A Crowell, Patricia E Fast, Linda-Gail Bekker, Eduard J Sanders Supplement Editors: Marlène Bras, Elisa de Castro Alvarez Volume 23, Supplement 6, October 2020 Acknowledgements The Guest Editors - Trevor A Crowell, Patricia E Fast, Linda-Gail Bekker and Eduard J Sanders - would like to thank all of the authors who submitted expressions of interest and full manuscripts. The authors worked hard throughout the rigorous selection process and we wish that more studies could have been included. We encourage investigators to continue to undertake research on this important topic and to disseminate critical fi ndings. We are hopeful that the work presented in this supplement will inform the design of future HIV prevention and care delivery research with the needs of African men who have sex with men and other sexual and gender minorities in mind. We would like to thank Haoyu Qian for project management support provided throughout the preparation of this supplement. We also wish to thank the editors and staff of the Journal of the International AIDS Society for their professionalism, support, and thoughtful guidance throughout the editorial process. Support This supplement was funded and supported by the US Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) through a cooperative agreement between the Henry M Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., and the US Department of Defense [W81XWH-18-2-0040]; and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), which receives generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Disclaimer The authors of the articles included in this supplement are solely responsible for the views expressed, which do not necessarily represent the views, decisions or policies of the institutions with which the authors are affi liated. The content of this supplement should not be construed to represent the positions of the US Army, US Department of Defense, USAID or the United States Government. Engagement of African men and transgender women who have sex with men in HIV research Guest Editors: Trevor A Crowell, Patricia E Fast, Linda-Gail Bekker, Eduard J Sanders Supplement Editors: Marlène Bras, Elisa de Castro Alvarez Contents Involvement of African men and transgender women who have sex with men in HIV research: progress, but much more must be done Trevor A Crowell, Patricia E Fast, Linda-Gail Bekker and Eduard J Sanders 1 HIV prevalence and incidence in a cohort of South African men and transgender women who have sex with men: the Sibanye Methods for Prevention Packages Programme (MP3) project Patrick S Sullivan, Nancy Phaswana-Mafuya, Stefan D Baral, Rachel Valencia, Ryan Zahn, Karen Dominguez, Clarence S Yah, Jeb Jones, Lesego B Kgatitswe, AD McNaghten, Aaron J Siegler, Travis H Sanchez and Linda-Gail Bekker 6 Sexually transmitted infection screening, prevalence and incidence among South African men and transgender women who have sex with men enrolled in a combination HIV prevention cohort study: the Sibanye Methods for Prevention Packages Programme (MP3) project Jeb Jones, Travis H Sanchez, Karen Dominguez, Linda-Gail Bekker, Nancy Phaswana-Mafuya, Stefan D Baral, AD McNaghten, Lesego B Kgatitswe, Rachel Valencia, Clarence S Yah, Ryan Zahn, Aaron J Siegler and Patrick S Sullivan 17 Risk factors for loss to follow-up among at-risk HIV negative men who have sex with men participating in a research cohort with access to pre-exposure prophylaxis in coastal Kenya Elizabeth W Wahome, Susan M Graham, Alexander N Thiong’o, Khamisi Mohamed, Tony Oduor, Evans Gichuru, John Mwambi, Elise M van der Elst and Eduard J Sanders 30 Retention of a cohort of men who have sex with men and transgender women at risk for and living with HIV in Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria: a longitudinal analysis Blessing O Kayode, Andrew Mitchell, Nicaise Ndembi, Afoke Kokogho, Habib O Ramadhani, Sylvia Adebajo, Merlin L Robb, Stefan D Baral, Julie A Ake, Manhattan E Charurat, Trevor A Crowell and Rebecca G Nowak 40 Enrolment characteristics associated with retention among HIV negative Kenyan gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men enrolled in the Anza Mapema cohort study Colin Kunzweiler, Robert C Bailey, Duncan O Okall, Susan M Graham, Supriya D Mehta, Boaz Otieno-Nyunya, Gaston Djomand and Fredrick O Otieno 51 The feasibility of recruiting and retaining men who have sex with men and transgender women in a multinational prospective HIV prevention research cohort study in sub-Saharan Africa (HPTN 075) Theodorus GM Sandfort, Erica L Hamilton, Anita Marais, Xu Guo, Jeremy Sugarman, Ying Q Chen, Vanessa Cummings, Sufi a Dadabhai, Karen Dominguez, Ravindre Panchia, David Schnabel, Fatima Zulu, Doerieyah Reynolds, Oscar Radebe, Calvin Mbeda, Dunker Kamba, Brian Kanyemba, Arthur Ogendo, Michael Stirratt, Wairimu Chege, Jonathan Lucas, Maria Fawzy, Laura A McKinstry and Susan H Eshleman 59 Association of age with healthcare needs and engagement among Nigerian men who have sex with men and transgender women: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses from an observational cohort Habib O Ramadhani, Trevor A Crowell, Rebecca G Nowak, Nicaise Ndembi, Blessing O Kayode, Afoke Kokogho, Uchenna Ononaku, Elizabeth Shoyemi, Charles Ekeh, Sylvia Adebajo, Stefan D Baral and Manhattan E Charurat 70 HIV infection and engagement in HIV care cascade among men who have sex with men and transgender women in Kigali, Rwanda: a cross-sectional study Jean Olivier Twahirwa Rwema, Carrie E Lyons, Sara Herbst, Benjamin Liestman, Julien Nyombayire, Sosthenes Ketende, Amelia Mazzei, Oluwasolape Olawore, Sabin Nsanzimana, Placidie Mugwaneza, Afl odis Kagaba, Patrick S Sullivan, Susan Allen, Etienne Karita and Stefan D Baral 80 Online socializing among men who have sex with men and transgender people in Nairobi and Johannesburg and implications for public health-related research and health promotion: an analysis of qualitative and respondent-driven sampling survey data Elizabeth Fearon, Adam Bourne, Siyanda Tenza, Thesla Palanee-Phillips, Rhoda Kabuti, Peter Weatherburn, Will Nutland, Joshua Kimani and Adrian D Smith 91 Acute and early HIV infection screening among men who have sex with men, a systematic review and meta-analysis Shaun Palmer, Maartje Dijkstra, Johannes CF Ket, Elizabeth W Wahome, Jeffrey Walimbwa, Evanson Gichuru, Elise M van der Elst, Maarten F Schim van der Loeff, Godelieve J de Bree and Eduard J Sanders 106 From general to specific: moving past the general population in the HIV response across sub-Saharan Africa Keletso Makofane, Elise M van der Elst, Jeffrey Walimbwa, Steave Nemande and Stefan D Baral 120 A more responsive, multi-pronged strategy is needed to strengthen HIV healthcare for men who have sex with men in a decentralized health system: qualitative insights of a case study in the Kenyan coast Elise M van der Elst, Rita Mudza, Justus M Onguso, Leonard Kiirika, Bernadette Kombo, Nassim Jahangir, Susan M Graham, Don Operario and Eduard J Sanders 126 Volume 23, Supplement 6 October 2020 Crowell TA et al. Journal of the International AIDS Society 2020, 23(S6):e25596 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jia2.25596/full | https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25596 EDITORIAL Involvement of African men and transgender women who have sex with men in HIV research: progress, but much more must be done Trevor A Crowell1,2,§ , Patricia E Fast3,4 , Linda-Gail Bekker5 and Eduard J Sanders6,7 §Corresponding Author: Trevor A Crowell, U.S. Military HIV Research Program, 6720A Rockledge Drive, Suite 400, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA. Tel: +1 301 500 3990. ([email protected]) Keywords: Africa; men who have sex with men; transgender people; key and vulnerable populations; sexual and gender minorities; sexual behaviour; biomedical research; implementation science; population health management; transgender women Received 16 July 2020; Accepted 20 July 2020 Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Journal of the International AIDS Society published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the International AIDS Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1 | INTRODUCTION these studies has been dependent on collaboration with key opinion leaders [25], non-governmental organizations [26], In sub-Saharan Africa, men who have sex with men (MSM) religious leaders [27], healthcare providers [28] and other and transgender women (TGW) have been living with, and community stakeholders to facilitate engagement of hard-to- dying from, HIV since the start of the pandemic. However, the reach African MSM communities. However, recruitment and impact of the virus on these sexual and gender minority popu- retention of African MSM in HIV prevention and treatment lations was masked for decades by the perception of HIV as a research has proved challenging. The purpose of this supple- “generalized” epidemic in the African context [1]. While the ment is to present reports of HIV-related studies that Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) began enrolling MSM recruited African MSM with a focus on challenges and suc- in Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles [2] just cesses related to engagement, recruitment and retention. three years after the first clinical cases of AIDS were reported Some studies also enrolled TGW, another key population that [3-6], another two decades passed before researchers began historically has often been conflated with MSM, but is deserv- HIV-focused studies enrolling African MSM [7]. Since then, ing of separate consideration and tailored, rights-affirming data have consistently shown that HIV prevalence and inci- engagement. Lessons learned from these studies will inform dence are far higher among African MSM and TGW than the development of strategies to test and, subsequently, deli- other reproductive age adults in their countries [8-13]. Miti- ver prevention and treatment interventions that are desper- gating and managing this high burden of disease is compli- ately needed to end the HIV pandemic.