OBJECTIVES: to analyze the process of the constitution and evolution of social representations and practices referent to aids, based on studies carried out in the last eleven years among health professionals. METHOD: a comparison of representational structures of aids in different decades was undertaken, accompanied by a study of the silent zone, involving health professionals. Data collection and analysis included techniques of free association, structural analysis, and study of the silent zone. RESULTS: the existence of a process of change was observed in the social representations of aids, with the introduction of the possibility of co-existence with the disease and the reduction of the importance of death. CONCLUSIONS: this process is presented as the result of a complex movement of symbolic constructions arising from human interactions, contributing to knowledge of ways of thinking associated with the syndrome and to professional practices in healthcare.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Social Perception; Delivery of Health Care; Social Change
