The article examines cases in which courts held that carriers of the AIDS virus are handicapped and thus entitled to protection under the Rehabilitation Act and cases in which courts recognized a health and safety defense to challenges under the Rehabilitation Act. The health and safety defense is then applied to three health and safety risks that would cause an asymptomatic carrier of the AIDS virus to be not qualified for employment or for participation in a federally-funded program: (1) a high risk of contagion to others; (2) a safety risk created when employees responsible for the safety of others may be impaired mentally as a result of being infected by the AIDS virus; and (3) the health risk created for an AIDS infected employee by the impact of work conditions on the employee's weakened immune system. The article concludes that a small number of circumstances exist to disqualify asymptomatic carriers of the AIDS virus from employment in professions involving considerable responsibility for the health and safety of others or from participation in a Federal program that would cause them to be a health or safety risk to others. 304 footnotes.