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
