S were performed maintaining in mind that the meanings assigned by truck drivers to HIVAIDS (and to its transmission and prevention) had been strongly connected to social performances related to gender, sex, and operate. These performances have been viewed as in specific social interaction contexts, incorporating elements on the broader social contexts in which they were inserted. The analysis of those meanings and interpretations aimed to determine contexts of vulnerability to HIVAIDS. The thematic evaluation identified three main themes: “today you’ll find significantly worse diseases”, “taking property a disease (…) I am truly afraid”, and “risk groups, lady from the home, and condom”. This analysis was authorized by the Analysis Ethics Committee from the Institute of Collective Health (Procedure 280,0682013). Results The majority of the 22 respondents had 36 years of age or older, steady companion, low educational level, and much more than ten years working as a truck driver. With regards to the place of residence, there was a high concentration in the Southeast and Northeast regions. The three analysis sites have been characterized by intense male sociability, structured by activities, values, and function relations belonging to the universe of truck drivers. Gas station attendants, “chapas”b, and female workers at restaurants are characters acting in these social interactions. Although we didn’t carry out observations at night, respondents reported the presence of prostitutes and shemales in such places at night. The observations and interviews showed that truck drivers take into account gas stations as places to the care of the physique; whilst the waiting areas for loading and unloading (port and enterprise) did not present a appropriate structure for accommodation of drivers. These places have been associated with hard negotiations concerning the freight and with the increased time that drivers remain away from their houses. The interviews showed that the contexts of vulnerability of truck drivers to HIVAIDS are outlined in distinctive levels, characterized by the following elements: the notion of threat group, the usage of the opposite categories “housestreet” along with the performances of gender characterized by the hegemonic masculinity, altogether composing the individual vulnerability; the reduced concerns with AIDS (“optimism”) connected for the access to helpful treatments, composing a “reverse effect” of programmatic vulnerability; the poor working circumstances, popular criminal violence present on long routes, along with the disregard of the public energy, altogether overlapping the wellness concerns and reinforcing a damaging view regarding the State, composing the social vulnerability. These contexts of growing vulnerability to HIVAIDS are strongly knowledgeable by long-distance truck drivers.DOI:10.1590S1518-8787.b Chapas are men at the roadside who guide truck drivers and deliver general services. Numerous truck drivers from other regions are guided and assisted by them once they arrive inside a new city.Vulnerability PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21258395 of truck drivers to HIVAIDSMagno L Castellanos MEPMinimizing HIVAIDS: “today, you’ll find a great deal worse diseases”Some respondents think about AIDS as a “half concealed taboo” that can bring about “embarrassment”. At times, they even characterize it as “violent”, “killer”, “bad”, “dangerous”, or perhaps comparable to “cancer”. On the other hand, for most, the concern over HIVAIDS was particularly minimized ahead of other adversities faced on the roads. [The Dimethylenastron site largest concern in the truck driver] today, would be the problem of robbery. (r. 8, 72 years old) There.