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Article History

Received: 12 December 2018

Accepted: 7 May 2019

First Online: 22 May 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: This survey was approved by the PNG National Department of Health’s Medical Research Advisory Committee (MRAC), the Research Advisory Committee of the National AIDS Council Secretariat (RAC), the PNG Institute of Medical Research’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), and the Human Research Ethics Committee at UNSW Sydney, Australia. The protocol was reviewed according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) human research protection procedures and was determined to be research but CDC was not engaged. A letter of support was provided by Kapul Champion, the peer led civil society for sexually diverse men and transgender people. Verbal informed consent was provided for all aspects of the study save for HIV testing, for which written informed consent was obtained per PNG national policy. The above referenced ethics committees approved the procedure for obtaining verbal consent. The provision of verbal consent was documented by the study staff person (Coupon Manager) who signed the consent form. Verbal consent was obtained over written consent as the name on the consent form would be the only personal identifier linking participants to the study. Written permission to participate was not obtained from the parents/guardians of the minors included in this study because the study’s populations are stigmatized for their behaviors and obtaining parent/guardian permission to participate would put the individuals at risk of violence, stigmatization, or harassment from their parent/guardian. The above referenced ethics committees approved this consent procedure for minors.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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