a trajetória silenciosa de pessoas portadoras do hiv contada pela ...

ABSTRACT
Silent History of People with Hiv, told through oral history
Seropositive people find it difficult to disclose their serological condition, since the AIDS
universe is full of symbols, meanings and structures unquestionably accepted by society such
as stigma, prejudice and denying. They fear being exposed to shame and accusations. The
present investigation methodology is base don the thematic Oral History and aims at analyzing
why it is difficult for people with HIV to make use of SUS (public unified health system) in order
get their serology follow-up. It is possible to understand the social interpretation of AIDS and
stigma by analyzing the interviewer speech. To reach our objective we carried out interviews
with five seropositive people that had been aware of their serology for over a year but had not
used SUS services to have HIV infection followed-up yet. The research material analysis made
it possible to notice that it is always very difficult for the sick person to face the diagnosis
moment since it brings drastic changes, which cause ruptures and conflicts mainly because
such disease is stigmatized by society. I inferred that the reasons preventing people with HIV
from looking for SUS health services seem to originate in and be explained by the AIDS
symbolization process, as well as by its deeply depreciative meaning supported by the fact that
people associate it with evil, pests, sex and death. The aforementioned reasons justify the fact
that seropositive people avoid making their serology public and hide the stigma marks not to be
discredited by “normal” people. When denying, isolating and hiding their disease, these people
are protecting themselves against “public execration” translated into prejudicial, discriminatory,
blaming and excluding attitudes, which are reactions to the stigma.
Key words: AIDS; stigma; public health system; nursing.b
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