---
kind: "section"
citation: "38 U.S.C. § 1133"
title: "38"
title_heading: "Veterans’ Benefits"
number: "1133"
heading: "Presumptions relating to certain diseases"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/38/1133"
units:
  - "Part II — General Benefits"
  - "Chapter 11 — Compensation for Service-Connected Disability or Death"
  - "Subchapter IV — Peacetime Disability Compensation"
---

# §1133. Presumptions relating to certain diseases

- (a) For the purposes of [section 1131 of this title](/usc/38/1131.md), and subject to the provisions of subsections [(b)](#b) and [(c)](#c) of this section, any [veteran](/usc/38/1101.md?p=1) who served for six months or more and contracts a [tropical disease](/usc/38/1101.md?p=4) or a resultant disorder or disease originating because of therapy administered in connection with a [tropical disease](/usc/38/1101.md?p=4), or as a preventative thereof, shall be deemed to have incurred such [disability](/usc/38/1701.md?p=1) in the [active military, naval, air, or space service](/usc/38/101.md?p=24) when it is shown to exist within one year after separation from active service, or at a time when standard and accepted treatises indicate that the incubation period thereof commenced during active service.
- (b) Service-connection shall not be granted pursuant to [subsection (a)](#a), in any case where the disease or disorder is shown by clear and unmistakable evidence to have had its inception before or after [active military, naval, air, or space service](/usc/38/101.md?p=24).
- (c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the granting of service-connection for any disease or disorder otherwise shown by sound judgment to have been incurred in or aggravated by [active military, naval, air, or space service](/usc/38/101.md?p=24).

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 85–857, Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1123, § 333; renumbered § 1133 and amended Pub. L. 102–83, § 5(a), (c)(1), Aug. 6, 1991, 105 Stat. 406; Pub. L. 116–283, div. A, title IX, § 926(a)(12), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 3830.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2021—Pub. L. 116–283 substituted “air, or space service” for “or air service” wherever appearing.

1991—Pub. L. 102–83, § 5(a), renumbered section 333 of this title as this section.

Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–83, § 5(c)(1), substituted “1131” for “331”.