Bond between health professionals and adolescents living with HIV/AIDS: analysis of the production and circulation of sexuality discourses

Abstract

Introduction: Young people are at the center of the HIV/AIDS crisis. In 2017, according to UNICEF, 30 teenagers from 15 to 19 years old were infected per hour in the world. But they do not always have their sexuality demands valued in health services. Objective: This article aims to understand the bond between health professionals and adolescents living with HIV/AIDS as a means for the production and circulation of discourses of sexuality. Methodology: Based on ethnography performed at an AIDS Clinic of the public health service of the city of Rio de Janeiro, between 2013 and 2014, we conducted participant observation of individual and collective activities of professionals, interviews with professionals and youth, and documental analysis, which evidenced the bond in a historical and current perspective. Results: We identified the production and circulation of discourses of sexuality in reports, bulletins, internal groups and medical consultations, devices by which the bond between professionals and teens was established. Conclusion: The bond enabled reception, active listening, affection, and social participation of users, strengthening the public health service in the face of privatization policies. Also by the bond, professionals exercised the control of young sexuality, being a device of incitement to “self-care”.