Get Social Security Disability & SSI Benefits With HIV/AIDS

Legal Author - Travis Hansen, Esq.
Updated - September 1, 2025

Winning Your Case

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) & Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

When your HIV or AIDS renders you unable to maintain full-time employment, Social Security will determine that you are disabled. HIV is a virus that destroys CD4 cells or T-helper cells which weakens the immune system and makes it difficult for the body to fight infections. The virus stays in your body forever. HIV is diagnosed by blood testing (ELISA testing, viral load testing, or western blot). AIDS is diagnosed in two ways. First, AIDS is more empirically diagnosed when a person's CD4 cell count drops below 200. Second, AIDS is diagnosed when a person has HIV, the body becomes severely weakened by HIV, and then the person develops a serious infection. How serious the infection must be to justify a diagnosis of AIDS is a judgment call made by a doctor, and in this case, it is critical you have a doctor who is able to justify the diagnosis in your medical records.

Social Security recognizes that HIV and AIDS symptoms vary very widely depending on which impairment a person has (HIV or AIDS), how severe the impairment is, and the body part(s) affected, but symptoms usually include the following:

1. Feeling ill,
2. Joint pain,
3. Fever,
4. Joint pain,
5. Muscle weakness,
6. Fatigue,
7. Increased infections,
8. Weight loss, and
9. Rashes.

Treatment for your HIV and AIDS is important in a Social Security and SSI disability case because treatment indicates the severity of your condition, and treatment for both is limited to a wide variety of medications - mainly nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors.

HIV or AIDS can lead to numerous other serious medical conditions which may result in a wide variety of other types of treatment depending on the body system affected. These other conditions can also cause additional limitations. Social Security can find you disabled on the basis of HIV and AIDS, or the combination of your HIV and AIDS and other impairment(s).

Tip. The two most important factors in proving to Social Security that you are disabled in a HIV or AIDS case is a low CD4 count (generally 200-400 or less) and medical record descriptions by your doctor of severe symptoms.

The Adult HIV/AIDS Social Security & SSI Listing

An adult meets the complicated HIV/AIDS Adult Listing 14.11 by satisfying any of the one through nine sections. A child meets the Child Listing 114.11 by satisfying any one of sections one through five or sections ten through 13.

1. Castleman disease;
2. Central nervous system lymphoma;
3. Primary effusion lymphoma (HIV type non-Hodgkin's lymphoma);
4. Progressive leukoencephalopathy;
5. Pulmonary Kaposi sarcoma;
6. CD4 count of 50 cells or less;
7. CD4 count of 200 cells or less or a CD4 percentage of less than 14%, and one of -
1. BMI of 18.5 or less, or
2. Hemoglobin of 8.0 grams per deciliter or less;
8. Complications of your HIV resulting in three or more medical center stays within a year, at least 48 hours long, 30 days apart; or
9. Ongoing HIV manifestations that are not one of the previous eight that result in significant symptoms and a marked curtailment of your ability to do one of -
1. Daily life,
2. Human socializing, or
3. Performing and managing obligations;
10. Reduced absolute CD4 count depending on age;
11. HIV infections necessitating medical center visits;
12. HIV infections causing neurologic abnormalities; or
13. Reduced immune capabilities and limited childhood growth.

TERI: Terminal Disease Case

A HIV/AIDS disability claim can meet the qualifications of a TERI claim which involves a terminal medical impairment - there is no treatment that can keep you from dying. Social Security will expedite a TERI HIV/AIDS claim - Expedited Cases.

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