Killer kissers

So our grandmothers were right to insist that we don?t go unchaperoned during our nights out at the movies with the boy(s) next door. For one, the neighbourhood would talk (and they did).

So our grandmothers were right to insist that we don’t go unchaperoned during our nights out at the movies with the boy(s) next door. For one, the neighbourhood would talk (and they did). For another, we were upping the risks considerably of us contracting meningitis. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal has found out that today’s youngsters are even more at risk than we were. Young people who kiss multiple partners intimately on the mouth — ‘deep kissing’ or ‘first base’ — are 3.7 times more liable to contract a meningococcal disease than others. (We know, we should have published this yesterday.)

HT Image

Meningitis bacteria live in the back of the nose and throat of a large number of people. These are, in most cases, passed harmlessly up and down people’s throats. But when the immune system has been weakened, these bacteria can result in full-blown meningitis, a disease that claims up to 300 lives in the US every year. Luckily, though, this is not a kissers-only disease. The bulk of patients are under-teens who have not yet succumbed to the charms of the ‘dangerous’ show of affection. Also, much of the frisky teenager-meningitis correlation has to do with lifestyle choices that go beyond the amorous.

For a generation that was vaguely worried about mononucleosis, an infection also contracted by kissing and producing symptoms such as fever, sore throat, swollen glands and tiredness, the BMJ study will provide some relief. Something, at last, could restrain these pesky, over-hormonally-charged kids of today.