From policy to practice of sexual post-exposure prophylaxis to HIV in the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS): about risk, behaviors and vulnerabilities

Abstract The effects of the antiretroviral therapy on the HIV transmissibility intensified the diffusion of new biomedical technologies in the virus prevention. This article discusses risk perceptions and health practices, in narratives of both professionals and patients, about the Sexual Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (“sexual PEP”). The data are the result of a case study carried out in a public health service. Analysis was based on risks and vulnerability studies. The results showed that the epidemiological criteria are not sufficient to respond the prophylaxis indication, that the intersubjectivity spaces circumscribed by the sexual PEP are crossed by distinct logics of risk and by discriminatory moral standards. The concretization of health practices oriented by the perspective of sexuality exercise as an affirmation of a right keeps being a challenge.