# Prevalence of syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections in men and transgender women who have sex with men in Cali, Colombia

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT · 2022 · $97,575

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to be a major public health problem afflicting millions of
people worldwide. Sexual and gender minorities (SGM), including men who have sex with men (MSM) and
transgender women, bear a high burden of STIs, while reporting higher rates of risk factors, economic
marginalization, social exclusion, and stigmatization which hinders their access to preventive and
therapeutic options for STIs. Little information is available in Colombia regarding the prevalence of STIs
in SGMs or the risk factors linked to acquiring and transmitting STIs. The current proposal incorporates
the use of Respondent Driven Sampling to recruit a group of transgender women and MSM for STI testing
and risk assessment in these often hard to reach populations. This project will use RDS to obtain data to
assess the unmet need for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of STIs in MSM and other SGM
populations. It will also facilitate enrollment of transgender women into our U-19 syphilis project. The
central overarching hypothesis of our study is that in MSM and transgender women who have sex with
other men in Cali, Colombia there is a high, unrecognized prevalence of syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia,
HPV, and viral hepatitis. To test our hypothesis, we propose to use Respondent Driven Sampling to
estimate the prevalence of STIs in MSM and transgender women who have sex with men, in Cali, Colombia.
In addition, we will quantify metrics of sexual health, knowledge, attitudes and practices of these
populations. It is our contention that this approach will undercover the hidden burden and unmet sexual
health needs of these populations and will allow policy makers, health care providers and the local
community to act upon this information through intervention planning.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10559087
- **Project number:** 3U19AI144177-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT
- **Principal Investigator:** Michael Anthony Moody
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $97,575
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2019-05-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10559087

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10559087, Prevalence of syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections in men and transgender women who have sex with men in Cali, Colombia (3U19AI144177-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10559087. Licensed CC0.

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