According to Dr Sharon Moalem, in her book "Survival of the Sickest", every person is really a small ecosystem of thousands of species. Bacteria of all conceivable kind and other microorganisms evolve together with the host, competing and cooperating in a wild evolutionary dance.
The evolution in micro-organisms (and viruses for that matter) happen at a speed several orders of magnitude faster than in any mammal. How on earth is anybody still alive when these buggers can outrun (actually outbreed) any defences?
The answer must be that it is beneficial for most of these species that the host is alive providing the habitat. Those microorganisms that don't benefit from the host being alive and kicking and that actually would take the host down will not only have to immediately fight the immune system of the host but also have to face the other species of the habitat in a longer term evolutionary battle. So without E-coli and his friendly neighbors we would most likely already be extinct.
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