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 Health & Beauty | February 2006 
Valentine's Day Warning: Multiple Kissing Partners Could Spell Meningitis
 AFP
| | French kissing with multiple partners almost quadruples a teenager's risk of spinal meningitis, a potentially life-threatening disease, according to a study. (AFP/Koca Sulejmanovic) |
French kissing with multiple partners almost quadruples a teenager's risk of spinal meningitis, a potentially life-threatening disease, according to a study.
Researchers investigated the background of 114 young men and women aged 15 to 19 who had been admitted to English hospitals with meningococcal disease in 1999 and 2000.
They were matched with a "control", a teenager of the same background who was otherwise healthy.
Those who had kissed intimately with multiple partners were 3.7 times likelier to catch the disease. University students and those with a history of preceding illness were also highly at risk.
On the other hand, those who had had meningoccal vaccination were largely protected - and there was also a lower infection rate among those who had attended a religious service.
The research, which is published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), was led by Robert Booy of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance in Sydney, Australia.
Meningococcal disease is caused by a bacterial or viral infection of the spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds it.
The symptoms are fever, headache and a stiff neck, which can proceed to nausea, vomiting and seizures.
Viral meningitis is generally far less severe than bacterial meningitis, which can lead to brain damage, hearing loss or even death if untreated swiftly with antibiotics.
In the British study, 58 percent of the infected cases had the "B" strain of bacterial meningitis and 38 percent had the "C" strain. A vaccine exists for the C strain of bacterial meningitis, but not for the B strain.
The disease can also be passed on through infected droplets expelled by coughing, although the far higher risk comes from tongue contact in kissing.
There are two main peaks of infection - among children aged under five, especially those in day care, and among teenagers. |
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