Abstract: OBJECTIVE To investigate the distribution and drug resistance of pathogens isolated from the patients with respiratory tract infection and observe the effects of antibiotics as well as the economic costs. METHODS A total of 120 patients with respiratory tract infection who were treated in the hospital from Oct 2014 to Sep 2016 were recruited as the study objects. The sputum, blood and urine specimens were collected from all of the study objects, the pathogens were isolated, and the drug susceptibility testing was performed. The enrolled patients were randomly divided into 4 groups in an order of ranking from 1 to 120, namely the group 1, 2, 3 and 4,which were respectively treated with 4 different types of antibiotics. The clinical curative effects and treatment costs were observed and compared among the 4 groups of patients. RESULTS Totally 134 strains of pathogens were isolated from the 120 patients, including gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria and fungi, and the gram-negative bacteria were dominant among the pathogens. The result of drug susceptibility testing indicated that the gram-negative bacteria were highly susceptible to imipenem and meropenem, and the gram-positive bacteria were extremely susceptible to vancomycin. The result of the treatment with 4 types of antibiotics indicated that there was no significant difference in the clinical curative effect, without leading any severe adverse reactions, however, the average treatment costs were significantly less in the group 1 and 2 than in the group 3 and 4 (P<0.05), however, there was no significant difference in the treatment cost between the group 1 and the group 2. CONCLUSIONS The gram-negative bacteria are dominant among the pathogens causing the respiratory tract infection, and the drug resistance rates to imipenem and meropenem are low. The different types of antibiotics can achieve the same curative effect, from the economic perspective, however, levofloxacin and ceftriaxone may reduce the economic burden.