[Perceptions and significance of being diagnosed and living with HIV/AIDS].

This is a descriptive and qualitative study with the objective of understanding the perceptions and meanings which the patients give to the diagnosis and conviviality with HIV/AIDS Thirteen patients who are users of STD/AIDS ambulatory services were interviewed in the city of Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Data were examined by the method of content analysis, resulting into the following categories: Discovery of a positive diagnosis to HIV social coping: diagnosis of AIDS in the public context; living with AIDS: new concepts regarding the disease The results showed that the HIV diagnosis causes sadness, fear and sense of finitude. The fear of revealing one's condition to family and friends is mostly caused by social prejudice, which is product of a disease connected to stereotypes. The maintenance of health and physical integrity allows the perception that shows AIDS acquiring characteristics of a chronic disease, signaling that the experience of coexisting with HiV is changing gradually.