AIDS has placed the issue of disease as cataclysm back on the social seneario, where the biological, political, and social dimensions are inextricably interwoven. This article is an effort to outline the conslruction of the repre-sentation of this phenomcnon, previously unknown multiple interferences and retranslations between scicntifie and common knowledge. With this in mind, AIDS is analyzed as approached within a public space, that is, ihrough a criticai reading of French newspapers.