attendance at religious event protection against

[coda]

Not sure where to post this, so feel free to move it.

Deep Kissing: Alarming Teen Warning

For decades, teenagers have used the back seat of their dad's car for making out, but teens who intimately kiss multiple partners almost quadruple their risk of contracting potentially deadly meningitis, according to researchers from the National Centre for Immunization Research and Surveillance at Children's Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, Australia.

There are two times in our lives when the risk for meningitis peaks: early childhood and adolescence. Triggered by a virus or bacteria, meningitis causes the membranes around the brain and spinal cord to become inflamed. Bacterial meningitis can be fatal if it's not treated quickly. Symptoms of meningitis included high fever with cold hands and feet, vomiting, severe headache, joint and muscle pains, possible stomach cramps and diarrhea, neck stiffness, a dislike of bright lights and disorientation.

The incidence of this life-threatening condition has risen sharply in the United States and England in the 1990s, and doctors don't know why. To try to identify potential risk and protective factors, the Australian team examined 114 adolescents ages 15 to 19 who had been admitted to the hospital with meningitis in six regions of England from January 1999 to June 2000. Each case was compared with a matched control. Blood samples and nose and throat swabs were taken, and data on potential risk factors were gathered through confidential interviews.

These are the risk factors for meningitis:

1. Intimate kissing with multiple partners
2. A history of preceding illness
3. Premature birth
4. Being a student, especially when living in a crowded dormitory

These are the protective factors for meningitis:

1. Meningitis vaccination
2. Recent attendance at a religious event

About one in 10 teenagers carries the meningococcal bacteria in their throats. While the bacteria do not survive outside the body, they can be passed easily in the saliva from one person to the next. That is why intimately kissing multiple partners is such a high risk factor for meningitis.

The researchers are realistic. Encouraging teenagers to change their behavior to reduce their risk of disease probably won't have a major impact. What will have an impact is vaccinations, and that should become a key public health priority.

The study findings were published in the British Medical Journal.

[coda]

Kissing many 'risks meningitis'
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 between two and seven in two weeks.

Lead researcher Robert Booy said teenagers should change their behaviour - but accepted most would not.

I don't expect teenagers to become nuns and monks for the duration of their university career, but I would encourage them to be aware of the symptoms
Linda Glennie, Meningitis Research Foundation

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.

Student risk

The researchers questioned 144 teenagers aged 15 to 19 diagnosed with meningitis at English hospitals.

Each was then compared with another teenager of the same age from their GP's list.

The research team asked about factors which might increase or decrease the teenagers' risk of meningitis.

SOME COMMON SYMPTOMS
High temperature, fever, possibly with cold hands and feet
Vomiting, sometimes diarrhoea
Severe headache
Joint and muscle pains, possible stomach cramps
Neck stiffness
Dislike of bright lights, disorientation

Blood samples and nose and throat swabs were also taken.

In addition to kissing multiple partners, a history of preceding illness, and being a student were linked to an increased risk of disease, while attendance at a religious event was linked to a lower risk.

Other factors can increase someone's risk of becoming ill if they are exposed to the bacteria, the researchers found.

Having had the Epstein-Barr virus - itself called the 'kissing disease' - is a factor, as is having an upper respiratory tract infection. Being a student also appeared to increase risk.

But attending religious services did not.

The researchers suggest these last two factors could be 'markers' of behaviour, indicating whether they are more likely to have multiple kissing partners and be attending parties, where the meningococcal bacteria can also be passed on by smokers' coughing.

Being born prematurely was also a risk - appearing to affect immunity to infection even 15 to 20 years later.

Teenagers 'not impervious'

Professor Robert Booy, co-director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance at the Children's Hospital Westmead, Sydney, led the study.

He said: "We all carry bacteria in out throats, and some of us will carry the meningococcal bacteria.

"They don't exist very well outside of the body. But if it can pass in saliva, from one person to the next, then it passes very easily."

He said the findings might make teenagers think.

"They tend to think they are impervious and will live forever. But if the message is this is something that could kill them in three days, it's a little more adjacent."

Professor Booy said he accepted that teenagers would continue to behave as they always had.

But he added: "I think they should change their behaviour. We found the risk for those without a partner and those with one was the same.

"The message to people who snog two partners is that they've probably also snogged two people, so you are multiplying your risk."

Linda Glennie, head of research at the Meningitis Research Foundation, which funded the study, said: "I don't expect teenagers to become nuns and monks for the duration of their university career, but I would encourage them to be aware of the symptoms."

Philip Kirby, chief executive of the Meningitis Trust added: "This research helps to highlight why students are the second most 'at risk' group for meningococcal disease.

"In the general population about 10% of people carry the meningococcal bacteria in the back of their throats, but in the student age group we know that this can increase to 30% due to their increased social interaction.

"The study reinforces the need for continued awareness amongst 15 to19-year-olds."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Our advice already highlights kissing as a risk factor for meningitis.

"We keep all new research under review and always amend our advice if necessary."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4696974.stm

Published: 2006/02/10 06:38:24 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[piet11111]

These are the risk factors for meningitis:

1. Intimate kissing with multiple partners

4. Being a student, especially when living in a crowded dormitory

These are the protective factors for meningitis:

2. Recent attendance at a religious event

ok the things that stand out to me are the sexual activity and the "cure/protection" being religion.
this ofcourse resulted in an explosion of my bullshit detectors.
also remembering the whole 50 million pounds for church counseling for women that want an abortion as proposed by the minister of health more or less makes the credibility of the study crash and burn.

but it does make me wonder how long it would take for some capitalist to invent a mouth-condom.

Indigo nice article keep them coming.

[redstar2000]

More info here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/medical_notes/98848.stm

The study contained only 144 subjects; an extremely small sample.

What I haven't seen thus far is any report of the actual number of fatalities among adolescents as compared to the total number of all adolescent deaths.

In the U.S., the most common cause of death among adolescents is accidents...mostly traffic accidents.

The risk from "deep kissing" would appear to be extremely tiny.

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif

PS: Technically, I suppose this topic really belongs in the Science & Environment Forum.

But I'm willing to leave it here so that one of our newly energized neo-puritans can tell us why he thinks "deep kissing" should be banned. :lol:

[violencia.Proletariat]

It says it can be treated. If your as sick as the symptoms say, who wouldnt go to a doctor if they could?

Looking at the ways to get it, mine as well keep on kissing. By the way the report sounds you should barricade yourself in your home in order to protect yourself. :(

[Janus]

Source: WHO(World Health Organization)

The bacteria are transmitted from person to person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions. Close and prolonged contact (e.g. kissing, sneezing and coughing on someone, living in close quarters or dormitories (military recruits, students), sharing eating or drinking utensils, etc.) facilitate the spread of the disease.
The best advice is just to get a vaccination before you're going to be in regular contact with other people like in dorms or barracks. The problem is that in some nations and particularly in the African "meningitis belt", treatment isn't readily available and epidemics are worsened by climate and social habits. I'm not exactly sure how attending a religious event would be a protective factor.

[piet11111]

i think its more of a behavior thing.

afterall christians are not well known for wild orgy's or sexual contact before marriage.
while students have the reputation for being very sexually active.

anyhow if vaccinations are the solution then i wonder why they are not vaccinating more poeple.
how long would it take before they are trying to impose a victorian lifestyle ?
i would hate to bring condoms and a canopener along when i might have a chance to get
lucky.

[coda]

Ahhh, the part about the "religious event prevention" made my head spin around it's axis. I had to read twice, ---that's why I posted it.

Anyway, I remember during the FTAA protest in Miami, one of the protesters contracted meningitis, he was working as a street medic there and on the way home, --he lived elsewhere,--- his friends brought him to a hospital in another state, but he died that night or so.


http://www.ftaaimc.org/or/2003/11/2384.shtml

[Severian]

Assuming the finding's correct - always uncertain until the study's been replicated by someone else - it can be explained two ways:
1. Differences in behavior between churchgoers and non-churchgoers, as Piet mentions.

2. Going to church involves social interaction; people who have more friends and other social interactions are generally healthier than people who don't. This is probably a weak effect as far as simply going to church, though.

[Janus]

people who have more friends and other social interactions are generally healthier than people who don't
Close, prolonged contact at social occasions is a major factor in the transmission of meningitis.


Differences in behavior between churchgoers and non-churchgoers
That's much more plausible explanation. It's not like churchgoers are magically protected from diseases.