Probability of HIV infection in a given clinical manifestation has been examined in a very few studies. Aims: To assess the probability of HIV infection in children hospitalized with the selected manifestations included in either World Health Organization (WHO) or South African criteria. Methods: Patients aged 18 months to 14 years hospitalized with at least two of the following clinical features: marasmus, prolonged pyrexia, persistent cough, chronic diarrhoea, repeated common infections,

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... alized lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, generalized dermatosis, oral candidiasis were tested for HIV by ELISA test using WHO-UNAIDS strategy-II. Results: Out of the recruited 110 cases, 9 cases were HIV positive with a seropositivity rate of 8.2%. In our study, only oral candidiasis was found to be an independent risk factor to predict HIV infection in children. However, probability of HIV infection increases with increase in the number of risk factors present concomitantly. Conclusion: Number and nature of the clinical features present determine the probability of HIV infection in children, which increases with increase in number of risk factors.