NARRATIVES OF DAILY LIFE IN THE USE OF ANTIRETROVIRALS FOR HIV: FROM THE BIOMEDICALIZED BODY TO THE SOCIAL ACTOR OF THE EXPERIENCE
HIV, Antiretrovirals, PrEP, Biomedical Power, Narratives
The emergence of antiretrovirals and the subsequent development of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) are recorded in the scientific literature as Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). Such antiretrovirals (ARV), resulting from scientific-technological advances in the last four decades of the AIDS pandemic, have become important allies for the treatment of the still incurable HIV, increasing life expectancy and improving the quality of life of people who have it. access and adhere to treatment. However, some adverse effects of these drugs were also not eliminated, causing various discomforts, in addition to bringing to light the power relations, biopolitics and necropolitics of the treatment. Thus, this thesis follows a non-traditional thesis presentation line and presents 3 studies around the investigation of narratives about HIV/AIDS and the daily use of antiretrovirals from the perspective of users of these drugs, whether for treatment or prevention (PrEP). It also sought to understand its meanings, difficulties, implications, negotiations and medical prescriptions experienced with HAART/ART in contemporary times in order to allow the investigation of its “adverse events” that are not only physiological, but also external and sociopolitical when they carried a coloniality that became maintains over the years as presented in the first study that was anchored in a narrative literature review (RNL). In continuation, the second work carried out through a case study with a user living with HIV, accompanied by me in the SAE, demonstrates the impacts of the diagnosis and the psychological aspects mobilized in a black subject. The social imaginary of aids discussed in the previous work is the background for the subjectivity of this user who, when facing difficulties with the diagnosis and adverse effects of the medication, reveals mental health issues that are not only individual, but collective. Therefore, he requests that the interventions also be collective, which was referred to for group follow-up in an HIV/AIDS NGO. Finally, the last study, the heart of this thesis, was a qualitative research using a questionnaire and interviews with 12 gay men, 6 using ARV for HIV treatment and 6 using ARV for prevention (PrEP) in the Health Care Service. Specialized Assistance (SAE), located at Policlínica Gouveia de Barros in Recife-PE. In this study, we sought to show how the psychosocial aspects that involve the use of antiretroviral medication for HIV/AIDS cross the user's experience in this field. What brings together and what differentiates those who use ARVs for treatment from those who use them for prevention. In this sense, it was intended to recognize the discursive clashes between the biomedical/pharmacological/psychological/experiential knowledge, that is, the determinations of the pharmaceutical industry and medicine and the experiences built over the use of ARVs (production of strategies, forms of use, effects, among other issues). That is, from them, questioning the place of antiretroviral medication in the lives of people living with HIV or preventing it. Together, these manuscripts sought to constitute a small research program related to the use of antiretrovirals from the perspective of the experimental subject. As evidenced in the three manuscripts, the work assumes a perspective of localized knowledge, situating the coloniality of HIV as an analytical category for the reflective exercise for health responses regarding the ever-present pandemic of HIV/AIDS.