Vermelho LL, Barbosa RS, Nogueira SA. Mulheres com AIDS: desvendando histórias de risco. [Women with AIDS: unmasking stories of risk.] Cadernos de Saúde Pública [Public Health Notebooks]. (Río de Janeiro, Brazil) 1999 April-June; 15(2):369-379.

Objectives: To understand the social and cultural profile associated with the risk of HIV infection in women; to present personal accounts of risk, which describe the significance and meaning of living with AIDS and the help received.

Methodology: Qualitative, via semi-structured interviews with 25 women confined in the University Hospital of the Federal University of Río de Janeiro.

Results: The majority of the women interviewed were poor, uninformed, and without bargaining power. Perceived risk and preventive practices were not part of these womens lives during the period prior to their infection with HIV. Even for those who had received some type of information about the epidemic, or who entertained doubt about sexual practices or the use of drugs by their partners, the perception of how the disease was transmitted -- including the imagined notion of AIDS as a disease of artists, homosexuals, or others -- distorted the evaluation of their own risks.

For many, obtaining medical help meant not abandoning themselves to early death. One group of women already had experienced their partners death from AIDS and feared abandonment. The help that they received came from their family or friends who were also, for the most part, very poor.

Conclusions: The study suggests preventive strategies that improve the sexual negotiating power of women and that draw men into reproductive health programs that deal with the issues of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.