By Kate Montecarlo Cordova
Founder and Chairwoman
Association of Transgender People in the Philippines
When talking about tuberculosis and transgender health, the data speaks… but it’s incomplete.
A community screening in Pakistan found 1.1% TB prevalence among transgender women. In Lima, Peru, it reached 2.9% — even higher among those living with HIV. And research from Papua New Guinea shows elevated TB symptom burden among key populations, including transgender women, compared to national averages.
And yet…
The World Health Organization (WHO) and national TB programs admit a major gap: Trans-specific TB data is largely missing from routine surveillance systems.
What does this mean?
If transgender people are invisible in data, we are invisible in policy. If we are invisible in policy, we are invisible in funding, services, and protection.
As near point-of-care (nPOC) TB diagnostics expand globally under Global Fund Grant Cycle 8, we must ask: How will these strategies meaningfully include transgender and gender-diverse communities in surveillance, reporting, and community-based delivery — without increasing stigma, discrimination, or risk?
Diagnostic equity must include gender identity.
No data. No visibility.
No visibility. No policy precision.
No policy precision. No equity.
I say this not just as an advocate, but as a TB survivor. I went through hell accessing treatment. I faced stigma in healthcare settings. I struggled with access, dignity, and community support.
The TB response cannot claim to be universal while leaving transgender people behind.
