Configurations and re-configurations of the young people living with hiv/aids movement in Brazil: Identities and preventions at stake

Abstract

Having been constructed as a model over recent decades, the “AIDS policy” has, however, been tested by different processes: the increase of new infections among “young people” and “key populations”; the government’s prioritization of biomedical approaches; and the cooling of the activism. Based on this perspective, this work discusses part of the results of an anthropological study that analyzed seven National Meetings of Adolescents
and Young People Living with HIV/AIDS. It can be seen that the construction of a specific “youth”, young people living with HIV/AIDS, has moved to the construction of a rather generic “youth” which does not distinguish potentially infected individuals from those already affected by the virus. A return to the centrality of the “risk” notion in understanding the epidemic is seen by some interlocutors in the field as a possible return to the outdated notion of “risk group”.