HIV/AIDSHistoryThe human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) targets the immune system and weakens people's defense systems against infections and some cancers . As the virus destroys and impairs the function of immune cells, infected individuals gradually become immunodeficient. Immune function is generally measured by CD4 cell count. Immunodeficiency leads to 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 2 to 15 years to develop depending on the individual. AIDS is defined by the development of certain tumors, infections, or other serious clinical manifestations. Disease transmission HIV can be transmitted through 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 normal everyday contact such as kissing, hugging, shaking hands, or sharing personal items, 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 HIV symptoms. The spread of HIV from an infected woman to her child during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding is called mother-to-child HIV transmission. In the United States, HIV is spread primarily through sexual intercourse or sharing drug injection equipment with someone infected with HIV. To reduce the risk of HIV infection, use condoms correctly and consistently during sexual intercourse, limit the number of sexual partners, and never share drug injection equipment. Between mother and child... at the center of the paper... living with HIV, just as happens among the general population. Only a mental health professional can accurately diagnose and treat depression. Peter Vanable, professor and chair of psychology at Syracuse University, has conducted extensive research on the behavioral aspects of HIV and coping. It analyzed, for example, how HIV stigma affects mental health and medication adherence. “A significant subgroup of HIV-positive men and women experience social rejection from family, loved ones [and] partners, and those experiences of discrimination and rejection can really manifest in difficult ways,” Vanable says. How people react to the news of an HIV diagnosis, he continues, can shape a patient's long-term psychological response. “People's experiences with social rejection and internalized feelings of self-rejection tend to go hand in hand,” Vanable says.