HIV serodifference: the "unsaid" in the social representations of health professionals.

Objective: To analyze social representations from the perspective of the silent zone of health professionals regarding HIV serodifference.

Method: This is a qualitative study, based on the theoretical-methodological framework of Social Representations, with the Theory of the Central Nucleus and Mute Zone by Jean Claude Abric. 51 professionals from specialized services from the metropolitan region of a capital in the northeast of Brazil participated, from October to December 2020. Interviews were applied using the free word association replacement technique, with prototypical and similarity analyzes processed in the Iramuteq software.

Results: The results showed that the central nucleus demonstrated the veiled presence of stigmas and lack of knowledge when dealing with HIV serodifference, represented by the expressions prejudice, lack of knowledge, fear, insanity, and love.

Final considerations: The social representations attributed to the central core are anchored in prejudice, ignorance, fear, and insanity. Such meanings signal the need for improvements in the knowledge of health professionals involved in the health care network, in order to enable the praxis of care, and to confront the stigmas that permeate serodifference and cause distance between partners and health services.