Social representations of AIDS by female sex workers

Este estudo trata do risco da AIDS para profissionais do sexo e seus parceiros. Foram entrevistadas 40 mulheres com idade entre 19 e 47 anos. Pouco menos da metade tinha parceiro fixo. Utilizaram-se entrevistas semi-estruturadas para a obtenção do material verbal, que foi analisado pelo software ALCESTE. Verificaram-se três aspectos da representação social da AIDS: o primeiro destaca-a como uma doença do "outro" (48,3% das unidades de contexto elementar, ou UCE); o segundo define-a como uma doença que ameaça todos os que não usam preservativo (26,7% das UCEs); e o terceiro estabelece ligação da AIDS com uso de drogas e pessoas "suspeitas" (25,0% das UCEs). Conclui-se que as mulheres que têm relação com parceiro fixo não-cliente e com clientes são mais vulneráveis que as outras, pois elas não transferem a experiência de proteção adotada diante dos clientes para as relações com seus parceiros fixos.This study focuses on female sex workers and their respective partners. Semi structured interviews were performed with 40 women with ages between 19 and 47. Around half of the subjects had a fixed relationship. The software ALCESTE analyzed the collected data. Three salient aspects of the social representations of AIDS were detected and are here considered by order of importance: first, AIDS was seen as a disease which affects others, involving 48.3% of the UCE; second, AIDS was seen as a disease that represents a menace to everybody and was seen as being caused by a neglectful use of condoms (26% of UCE); third, AIDS was associated to the use of drugs and to people arousing suspicion. Data also suggested that women who had fixed relationships out of commercial relations were more vulnerable than the others for they did not behave as protectively with their fixed partners as they did with their clients