This paper investigated the non-return of users to know their HIV test results in a HIV Testing and Counseling Center of the state of Rio de Janeiro in 2009. A socio-anthropological study integrated to RJ-CTA Research, which analyzed the motivations and implications of testing for STD / AIDS, using four data sources: ethnography of counseling sessions, questionnaires applied to 384 users who reached for the test in 2009, database SI-CTA from 2008 to 2009; 14 interviews with young users (18-28 years old). Between 2008 and 2009, the rate of users who did not receive their test results in CTA was 62%, except for pregnant women. Issues were relate to the dynamics of the service, such as reception, coverage of rights such as anonymity and confidentiality, operational difficulties such as delay in test results, but also cut across the life trajectory of the user: fear, anxiety, negative representations of testing and discrimination. Proposals of the Health Ministry to reduce the non-return mark rapid tests and pre-test counseling as optional. Against what have been pointed out, institutional responses, solely, do not ensure the return of most users to get HIV test results.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; AIDS serodiagnosis; HIV; counseling; ethnography