AIDS: disease experience and therapeutic itinerary building

Abstract

This research is descriptive and qualitative in nature and it aims to portray the practices of care adopted by HIV+ individuals. Aids is regarded today as a chronic disease which requires many forms of care, in a process that resolves itself in the construction of a therapeutic itinerary. To guide this study, we have used social-anthropological literature on Arthur Kleinman’s Health Care System model. Thirteen outpatients from a STI/HIV Health Care Center located in Florianópolis metropolitan area (Santa Catarina State, Brazil) were interviewed. Collected data were analyzed using Bardin’s content analysis methodology. Resources of care were found in family, community and professional subsystems. These resources are used to preserve good health conditions, to prevent diseases, to solve predicaments and to reach cure. By understanding the therapeutic itinerary, health care professionals may recognize diversity regarding wisdom and ways of dealing with the illness, providing subsidies to build health care services that will come closer to the patient’s cultural reality.

Key words: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Chronic disease; Nursing care.