These findings are pertinent in light of our re-analysis of the Monaco et al. cohort which indicates that gut microbiome enrichment of Streptococcus and Veillonella in HIV-infected patients with low CD4+ cell counts is more generalizable and occurs irrespective of pneumonia or HIV treatment, and may be indicative of traditional airway-colonizing microbes establishing a niche within the gut or vice versa. Here, CD4 is linked to susceptibility to pneumonia measurement.