Prevention has been a crucial aspect of Aids-control programs. Enormous progress both in knowledge and techniques in this area has been unable to significantly alter the basic determinants of the infection or the illness processes of substantial groups of people. This essay seeks to systematize the lessons learned in the field of prevention over the epidemic's two decades - taking into account, in particular, the Brazilian experience. The implications of these lessons in regard to our prevention strategies are, briefly: a) that we should think about prevention strategies less in terms of "population-based groups" and more in terms of something we can call "intersubjectivity contexts." This means demarcating areas of interaction (social, cultural etc.) that generate vulnerability, articulated with the intersubjective contexts that favor the construction of responses designed to reduce those vulnerabilities; b) the effective substitution of the molding attitude by an emancipatory attitude in our educational practices; c) that we should not focus the policies, programs and actions on risk groups or risk behaviors, but rather on the relationships socially established among the different social subjects and their interdependent and changeable identities.
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome; health education