Disease linked with teenage kissing: "Intimate kissing with multiple partners almost quadruples a teenager's risk of developing meningitis, research has suggested. Young children and adolescents face the greatest risks of meningococcal disease, which can cause serious disability and death. Now researchers have found that, in teenagers, kissing is a major factor is helping the disease spread. Rates of meningitis - which is the inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord - increased significantly in England and the US in the 1990s. The introduction of the meningitis C vaccine in the UK has helped numbers drop, but other forms of the infection remain a major problem. The latest research, published in the British Medical Journal, examined possible risk factors in youngsters aged 15 to 19 who were admitted to hospital with meningococcal disease in six regions of England between January 1999 and June 2000."