The National Institutes of Health is spending roughly $200,000 in an effort to get Latina transgender women who have sex with men to use condoms.
Wake Forest University will attempt to find 100 Latino men who now identify as women for the study.
"The United States has a large and rapidly growing Latino population," a grant for the project states. "At the same time, Latinos and transgender persons in the US carry disproportionate HIV burden. Currently, no efficacious HIV prevention interventions exist for transgender persons who have sex with men."
The four-year study will try to increase condom use and HIV testing through a program called "Chicas."
"The intervention, known as Chicas Creando Acceso a la Salud (ChiCAS; Girls Creating Access to Health), was developed locally by a community-based organization, in partnership with Latina transgender women, and is informed by social cognitive theory and theory of empowerment education," the grant said.
The project was awarded earlier this fall, costing taxpayers $199,942 so far.
"Participants in the HIV prevention intervention, relative to their peers in the delayed-intervention comparison group, are anticipated to demonstrate (a) increased self-reported use of condoms during sexual intercourse; (b) increased HIV testing; (c) increased use of PrEP; and (d) increased use of safe transition-related healthcare services (including medical care and mental health services)," the grant said.