Aids e terapia antirretroviral: percepções de pessoas que vivem com HIV

Abstract

Mainly due to the advent of antirretroviral therapy, HIV/AIDS has assumed characteristics of chronic disease. On the one hand, organic recovery and increased life life expectancy are experienced, and on the other, the adverse effects of medications. Allied to the biological issue are the psychosocial dimensions linked to the diferente factors related to the syndrome in the social context, mainly in the epidemiological aspects and in the structuring and development of the STD/AIDS Program in the country. Understanding how the person living with HIV perceives the disease itself can be an important ally in treatment since, when aiming at changes in health practices, it is necessary to think about them in their objective and subjective dimensions. This study aim to analyze the perception of HIV/AIDS among people living with the disease using antirretroviral therapy. It is na exploratory and descriptive study that uses the qualitative approach of the analytical type. The study was developed in a Specialized Care Servie in a city in the interior os São Paulo State. The studied subjects were people with HIV, aged 18 year or older, that use the health service and were using antirretroviral therapy. The 43 participants answered two questionnaries – socioeconomic and clinical free recalls in order to analyze the perception of AIDS and antirretroviral therapy. The analysis was performed using the four-frame board technique with the support of the OpenEvoc software. In the perception of HIV/AIDS, aspects of the onset of the syndrome related to the disease and prejudice remain, permeated by aspects of coping that may indicate the possibility of introducing more positive aspects to the perception. In the perception of antirretroviral therapy, cognitions are perceived essentially related to the need to use drugs and a demand for regular daily organization of ingestion of these drugs permeated by the possibility of improving the health condition and the side effects faced during treatment. This scenario brings up the discution of the directions that brazilian public policies on AIDS have invested their strenghts, highlighting the need to rescue the notion of solidarity and to face with courage the social scars that AIDS has imprinted in our society.