Understanding HIV/AIDS: Transmission, Diagnosis and Coping

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HIV/AIDS
History
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) targets the immune system and weakens people 's defense systems against infections and some types of cancer. As the virus destroys and impairs the function of immune cells, infected individuals gradually become immunodeficient. Immune function is typically measured by CD4 cell count. Immunodeficiency results in increased susceptibility to a wide range of infections and diseases that people with healthy immune systems can fight off. The most advanced stage of HIV infection is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which can take from 2 to 15 years to develop depending on the individual. AIDS is defined by the development of certain cancers, infections, or other severe clinical manifestations.

Transmission of Disease
HIV can be transmitted via the exchange of a variety of body fluids from infected individuals, such as blood, breast milk, semen and vaginal secretions. Individuals cannot become infected through ordinary day-to-day contact such as kissing, hugging, shaking hands, or sharing personal objects, food or water. The spread of HIV from person to person is called HIV transmission. HIV transmission is possible at any stage of HIV infection, even if an HIV-infected person has no symptoms of HIV. The spread of HIV from an HIV-infected woman to her child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding is called mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In the United States, HIV is spread mainly by having sex with or sharing drug injection equipment with someone who is infected with HIV. To reduce your risk of HIV infection, use condoms correctly and consistently during sex, limit your number of sexual partners, and never share drug injection equipment. Mother-to-child tra...

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...iving with HIV, just as it is by the general population. Only a mental health provider can accurately diagnose and treat depression.
Peter Vanable, a professor and chair of psychology at Syracuse University, conducted extensive research on the behavioral aspects of HIV and coping. He analyzed, for example, how HIV stigma affects mental health and medication adherence. “A significant subset of men and women who are HIV positive experience social rejection from family, from loved-ones [and] from partners, and those experiences of discrimination and rejection can really play out in difficult ways,” Vanable says. The way people react to news of an HIV diagnosis, he continues, can shape a patient 's long-term psychological response. “People 's experiences with social rejection and people’s internalized feelings of self-rejection tend to go hand-in-hand,” Vanable says.

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