Comprehensive health care, adherence to ART and the political-affective developments of living with HIV/AIDS among Brazilian women

Abstract

The article addresses considerations emerging
from intervention research aimed at understanding
the meanings of living and the political-affective
consequences of antiretroviral therapy (ART)
among Brazilian women living with Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Adopting the
Cartographic Method (Deleuze; Guattari, 1995),
interviews and group meetings were used as
tools, problematizing the tension between the
macropolitics expressed in public policies and
care practices in health units and the micropolitics
undertaken by each of the women to live better. As a
result, women highlighted the challenges they faced
in the programmatic, social, family, love, sexual,
racial, and gender spheres, developing a critical
look at the care received in health services and
highlighting the need for health professionals and
policies to incorporate the dimension of affection
as a means of promoting health. It was concluded
that comprehensive care for women living with HIV/
AIDS requires changes in professional practices that
allow the intensive resonance of shared affections in
the construction of health care, creating relational
territories that recognize the tension inherent
to subjective differences and strengthen the
implementation of Singular Therapeutic Project
including families. Brazilian health professionals
in Primary and Specialized Care need to experience
Continuing Health Education processes to make this
possible.