It's not bad enough that being sexually abused as a kid puts you at higher risk for acquiring HIV infection, incest and other child sexual abuse may have quite a negative impact on your health. This information comes to us from the field of psychoneuroimmunology, a branch of medicine that studies the impact of emotions, thought-processes and behavior on health. From research that indicates loneliness, depression, feelings of hopelessness, long term stress and lack of social support result in impaired immune functioning, it is possible to extrapolate that incest survivors, as a group, face the AIDS crisis at a significant physical disadvantage.
Source: wiktionary