PURPOSE: This study was designed to document the prevalence of HIV associated respiratory infections in Hyderabad. Such studies have not been worked out before in this region. METHODS: The study included specimens from 130 patients with complaints suggestive of lower respiratory tract infection. Among them 100 were HIV reactive and 30 were HIV nonreactive. Both the expectorated as well as induced sputum samples were collected and processed to examine for the bacterial and fungal pathogens including Pneumocystis carinii. RESULTS: Sputum samples from 63% of HIV reactive and 33.3% of HIV nonreactive patients were culture positive. In all, there were 70 pathogens isolated from the HIV reactive subjects, 44.3% were bacteria, 42.9% were Mycobacteria and 12.8 % were fungi. CONCLUSIONS: Lower respiratory tract infection is a common problem among HIV reactive patients and majority are bacterial infections. Polymicrobial isolation was observed only among the HIV reactive patients. PCP was not documented in our series.