AIDS Defining Conditions

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines a person as having AIDS if she or he is living with HIV (HIV+) and has a CD4 cell count of 200 or less. The CDC has also developed a list of more than 20 opportunistic infections (OIs) that are considered AIDS-defining conditions (see below). If you have HIV and one or more of these OIs, you have a diagnosis of AIDS.

This list comes from a government report and contains medical terms. If you have any questions, contact a treatment educator at a local AIDS service organization or call an AIDS information line such as the Project Inform National HIV/AIDS Treatment Hotline at 800-822-7422.

• Bacterial infections, multiple or recurrent (only for children less than 13 years old)
• Candidiasis of bronchi, trachea, or lungs
• Candidiasis, esophageal
• Cervical cancer, invasive (only among people 13 years old or older)
• Coccidioidomycosis, disseminated or extrapulmonary
• Cryptococcosis, extrapulmonary
• Cryptosporidiosis, chronic intestinal (for longer than 1 month)
• Cytomegalovirus disease (other than liver, spleen, or nodes), beginning when older than one month
• Cytomegalovirus retinitis (with loss of vision)
• Encephalopathy, HIV-related
• Herpes simplex: chronic ulcers (lasting longer than 1 month); or bronchitis, pneumonitis, or esophagitis (beginning when older than one month)
• Histoplasmosis, disseminated or extrapulmonary
• Isosporiasis, chronic intestinal (for longer than 1 month)
• Kaposi sarcoma
• Lymphoid interstitial pneumonia or pulmonary lymphoid hyperplasia complex (only for children less than 13 years old)
• Lymphoma, Burkitt (or equivalent term)
• Lymphoma, immunoblastic (or equivalent term)
• Lymphoma, primary, of brain
• Mycobacterium avium complex or M. kansasii, disseminated or extrapulmonary
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis, of any site, pulmonary (only among people 13 years old or older), disseminated, or extrapulmonary
• Mycobacterium, other species or unidentified species, disseminated or extrapulmonary
• Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP)
• Pneumonia, recurrent (only among people 13 years old or older)
• Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy
• Salmonella septicemia, recurrent
• Toxoplasmosis of brain, beginning when older than one month
• Wasting syndrome due to HIV