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1 likely to interact with mammalian cells, is incomprehen- 
2 sible to me on a scientific basis. 
3 E, pathogenicity is not a property of an 
4 organism, it is a relationship between the organism and 
5 some host. For example, a particularly serious form of 
6 E. col i infection is infantile meningitis. This is 
7 described recently in an article by Gload , et al., in 
8 the Journal of Infectious Disease . It is reviewed in 
9 the current issue of the Annual Review of Med icine 
10 by Katherine Wilford. 
11 Infantile meningitis has a very serious 
12 mortality rate. It is at 40 to 80 percent, and many 
13 of the infants — these often premature infants, neonates, 
14 who survive the infection — are developmentally and 
15 neurolog ically impaired. The strains that cause 
16 meningitis in premature infants are not pathogenic 
17 in adults, in their mothers. Therefore, if you test 
18 these strains which show a particular antigen, K-l 
19 antigen in a healthy female, you don't get meningitis. 
20 She doesn't get sick. That is not the proper host. 
21 All of the discussions of the Falmouth 
22 Conference, at which I was present (but again, not 
23 invited) , focused on the pathogenicity of E. col i in 
24 healthy adults and not in compromised individuals, 
25 which brings me to the general point missing, F, 
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