(HealthDayNews) -- Disease-causing organisms have been known to travel quickly in closed environments. And here's how rapidly that can be.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham monitored freshmen for Neisseria meningitidis. They weren't looking for students who were infected and sick, but just for students who carried the bacteria.
On the first day of school, about 7 percent of the class carried the bacteria. By the second day, the rate was up to 11 percent, and up to 19 percent on the third day. At the end of their first semester, more than a third of all students had become healthy carriers of the bacteria.
If you wonder how any bacteria could spread so quickly, the epidemiologists listed some risk factors: visits to bars, smoking, visits to night clubs and intimate kissing.
