Imagens e significados da Aids entre usuárias dos serviços da rede básica de saúde do município do Rio de Janeiro.

The present work aimed at identifying and describing the images and the meanings present in the Aids's social representations among women attended in the health basic net. It is a qualitative study based on the social representations theory. There participated of the study 46 women attended in the services of attendance to the woman in eight health municipal centers. The data were collected with semi-structured interview and treated by the Alceste program. The result evidenced that the Aids is a contagious disease that means death being objectified as ugly, bad and dangerous, arising sentiments of suffering and fear. It is considered a pandemia that is disseminated by the irresponsibility of the "others". The prevention is the essential factor for the syndrom control. By its historical and social construction, propiciates the development of discrimination and preconcepts attitudes. The contents of this social presentation reveal aspects that are constituted in a tool to guide the assistance and educative practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]