Support is being sought for the Fourth International Symposium on Pathogenic Neisseria. Infection caused by N. gonorrhoeae is the most commonly reported communicable disease in the United States. The most significant manifestation is salpingitis which leads to 1.8 million office visits and 220,000 hospitalizations each year in the United States. The meningococcus causes approximately 2000 sporadic cases each year in this country and a recent epidemic occurred in Finland. Although effective polysaccharide vaccines exist for the prevention of groups A, C and Y disease, no licensed group B vaccine is available. The molecular basis for the pathogenicity of both Neisseria species is under extensive and productive study in many laboratories in North America and Europe. Besides providing a deeper understanding of the biology of these organisms, recent work has focused on their immunoprophylaxis, and several promising vaccine constituents have been identified. This conference will provide a forum in which international workers in the field can exchange recent, unpublished information, re-direct their laboratory's research endeavors, and establish productive collaborations with other scientists. Moreover, young investigators new to the field will be invited and will benefit from discussions with more establishd workers. Finally, the published proceedings of the symposium will serve as a resource for the scientific and medical community.
