This investigation was carried out between January and March, 2005, aiming the study of the socio-demographic and behavioral profile of individuals that spontaneously seeked out the Counseling and Testing Center (CTC), in the town of Belém, Pará, as well as to evaluate the frequency of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in this population and possible risk factors for infection. The subjects, after written consent, were submitted to an interview, where information referring to the socio-demographic characteristics and past risk behavior was obtained; pregnant women were excluded from this investigation. The information obtained was coded, typed and analyzed in a database created with the Microsoft Excel and EPI INFO 2002 programs. The subjects of the study were 153 individuals, 47.1% being male, the predominating age range was between 21 and 30 years, with 39.8 % of the participants; 94.1% resided in Belém and 64.8% attended High School or College; 44.5% were unemployed and 52.3% affirmed having a family income between 2-5 minimum wages. Among 78.4 % of the subjects, a risky sexual relation was the main reason for doing the anti-HIV serology at the CTC. Among past risk behaviors, 49.1 % of the subjects declared to have only one sexual partner during the last six months before the interview, and 66.7 % used preservatives irregularly; 88. 2% of the subjects informed having tattoos, and the use of illicit endovenous drugs was referred only by 1.3%. Exclusively heterosexual exposition was the category in which 67.9 % of the subjects included themselves. Results obtained in this investigation allow the conclusion that young men and women, most of them heterosexuals, equally seek out the CTC in Belém to make the anti HIV test. About half of the cases belong to low income families, and these refer only one sexual partner in the past six months before the interview. Notwithstanding this last characteristic portrayed in the population studied, roughly two-thirds do not practice safe sexual relations, opting for the insecure practice of irregular use of preservatives, which means that risky sexual relation is the main reason for the CTC pursuit. Probably this behavior is a factor contributing for the expressive rates of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus in the investigated population.
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