AIDS defining illnesses

The term AIDS refers to the late stage of HIV infection where there is profound immune deficiency and various opportunistic infections occur.

The point at which illness due to HIV, attracts the label AIDS has changed over the decades as our knowledge of the disease has increased.

The United States Centres for Disease Control (CDC) produced a definition of AIDS for surveillance purposes in 1987. However, this definition was expanded in the CDC's 1993 definition.

In developing countries where laboratory facilities required by the 1987 definition of AIDS are unavailable, the WHO rely upon a more clinical definition of AIDS.

The CDC definition of AIDS defining illnesses (accessed 29th May 2014) is:

• bacterial infections, multiple or recurrent*
• Candidiasis of bronchi, trachea, or lungs
• Candidiasis of esophagus(a)
• Cervical cancer, invasive(b)
• Coccidioidomycosis, disseminated or extrapulmonary
• Cryptococcosis, extrapulmonary
• Cryptosporidiosis, chronic intestinal (>1 month's duration)
• Cytomegalovirus disease (other than liver, spleen, or nodes), onset at age >1 month
• Cytomegalovirus retinitis (with loss of vision)(a)
• Encephalopathy, HIV related
• Herpes simplex: chronic ulcers (>1 month's duration) or bronchitis, pneumonitis, or esophagitis (onset at age >1 month)
• Histoplasmosis, disseminated or extrapulmonary Isosporiasis, chronic intestinal (>1 month's duration)
• Kaposi sarcoma(a)
• Lymphoid interstitial pneumonia or pulmonary lymphoid hyperplasia complex*(a)
• Lymphoma, Burkitt (or equivalent term)
• Lymphoma, immunoblastic (or equivalent term)
• Lymphoma, primary, of brain
• Mycobacterium avium complex or Mycobacterium kansasii, disseminated or extrapulmonary(a)
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis of any site, pulmonary,(a)(b) disseminated,(a) or extrapulmonary(a)
• Mycobacterium, other species or unidentified species, disseminated(a) or extrapulmonary(a)
• Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia(a)
• Pneumonia, recurrent(a)(b)
• Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy
• Salmonella septicemia, recurrent
• Toxoplasmosis of brain, onset at age >1 month(a)
• Wasting syndrome attributed to HIV

*Only among children aged <13 years. (CDC. 1994 Revised classification system for human immunodeficiency virus infection in children less than 13 years of age. MMWR 1994;43[No. RR-12].)

(a) Condition that might be diagnosed presumptively.

(b) Only among adults and adolescents aged >13 years. (CDC. 1993 Revised classification system for HIV infection and expanded surveillance case definition for AIDS among adolescents and adults. MMWR 1992;41[No. RR-17].)