FRIDAY, Feb. 10, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Teenagers who engage in intimate kissing with multiple partners can quadruple their risk of contracting meningitis, researchers report.
Meningitis is a potentially life-threatening disease that typically affects people in early childhood, and again in adolescence. It causes an inflammation of the meninges, which are membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. The inflammation is typically triggered by viruses or bacteria, although bacterial meningitis is considered far more dangerous and can be fatal if not treated quickly.
Meningitis has been on the increase among teens in England and the United States since the 1990s. However, not much is known about the risk factors for the disease in adolescents, according to the researchers, who report their findings in the Feb. 11 issue of the British Medical Journal.
Dr. Robert Booy, co-director of the National Centre for Immunization Research and Surveillance at Children's Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues looked at risk factors for meningitis in teens. They examined 114 adolescents, aged 15 to 19, who were hospitalized in England from January 1999 to June 2000. Each case was compared with a healthy teen.
Booy's team found the risk for meningitis increased with intimate kissing with multiple partners. Other risk factors were having a history of viral disease and being a student.
Conversely, recent attendance at a religious event and being vaccinated against meningitis were linked to a lower risk of developing the disease.
"Our findings imply that changing personal behaviors could reduce the risk of meningococcal disease in adolescence," the authors wrote. "Although behavior-based health promotion messages might have a small role in reducing the risk of disease, such campaigns are unlikely to have a major impact. The development of further effective meningococcal vaccines therefore remains a key public health priority."
One expert said the study highlights the need for children to be vaccinated against the disease.
"The study supports the use of the meningococcal vaccine," said Dr. Robert S. Baltimore, a professor of pediatrics infectious disease and public health at Yale University School of Medicine, and a member of the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "We definitely support the use of this vaccine for adolescents."
Baltimore noted that the behavioral aspects of meningitis protection, such as attending a religious event, may be more a matter of lifestyle rather than religion.
"Adolescents are at increased risk if they are living in a dormitory situation," Baltimore said. "Those who live in crowded situations will benefit even more from the vaccine."
Another expert agreed that vaccination is the best way to protect against meningitis.
"The only implications of the study are that we need to provide meningococcal immunization to those at risk, as the modifiable risk factors that they identify do not account for all cases. And it is unlikely that we will have a significant ability to prevent meningococcal disease through behavior changes," said Dr. Coleen K. Cunningham, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center.
"Therefore, immunization will be important," she said.
More information
The National Meningitis Association can tell you more about meningitis.
