What is AIDS-defining clinical condition?

AIDS-defining clinical conditions is the list of diseases published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that are associated with AIDS, and used worldwide as a guideline for AIDS diagnosis. CDC exclusively uses the term AIDS-defining clinical conditions, but the other terms remain in common use.

This list governs the US government classification of HIV disease. This is to allow the government to handle epidemic statistics and define who receives US government assistance. However, considerable variation exists in the relative risk of death following different AIDS defining clinical conditions.