This paper discusses the vulnerability of women who are drug addicts in getting infected by the HIV/AIDS. It is a qualitative study whose data were collected by field observation plus interview with eighteen women, during extra activities for drug addict people. The analysis presented conducts related to sexual behaviors and to use of drugs, connected by social and cultural constructions which increase the vulnerability to HIV infection. Regardless the kind of drug, way or net use, the drug addiction or even the continuous interaction with people who use drugs, whether in sexual or in emotional relationships, can be considered situations of vulnerability to HIV infection in dissimilar degrees over the individual and social levels. These situations are filled in unequal gender and powerfulness relations, indicating the necessity of studies and a kind of intervention that addresses to the gender matter, beholding drug addict people, particularly female.
Women; Street Drugs; Vulnerability; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Gender Identity