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Kissing
many 'risks meningitis'
10 Feburary 2006
Intimate kissing of many different partners can quadruple
a teenager's risk of meningitis, a study has found. Kissing with tongues
enables the potentially deadly meningococcal bacteria to pass between
partners.
The Australian team which carried out the British Medical Journal study
of 144 teenagers defined multiple partners as up to seven in a fortnight.
Lead researcher Robert Booy said teenagers should change their behaviour
- but accepted most would not.
Meningococcal disease is a life threatening condition. Incidence tends
to peak in early childhood and in adolescence. It can cause meningitis,
an inflammation of the brain lining, or meninges, and septicaemia, which
is the blood poisoning form of the disease.
The incidence and fatality rate among teenagers in England and the United
States rose dramatically during the 1990s. The introduction of the meningitis
C vaccine in the UK in late 1999 - which is given to both babies and teenagers
- has helped numbers drop but other forms of the infection remain a major
problem. It is known that around one in 10 teens carry meningococcal bacteria.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4696974.stm
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