It was interesting to hear this week that the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has issued a report calling for a ban on smoking in cars and public places where young people congregate. They blame passive smoking for 300,000 child GP visits every year.
It is perhaps not surprising in 2010 to hear that there are side effects to smoking, or indeed that these go beyond the actual smoker; but this report reinforces a key message we have been promoting for a number of years now – supported by much research - that meningococcal disease is a possible effect of smoking and passive smoking.
The RCP report actually states that 200 cases of meningitis in UK children are caused by passive smoking, so perhaps we should be campaigning for meningitis symptoms to appear on the side of cigarette packets? Perhaps not, but it goes to show that our efforts to inform and educate the general public (smokers or not), about the risks of meningitis, the reasons to vaccinate and the need to be vigilant about the symptoms are not without success – and continue to be of importance.
Research has shown that smokers are more susceptible to picking up and passing on bacteria which cause meningitis. In teenagers, two major studies funded by MRF in the last ten years have linked smoking with meningococcal disease (the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in the UK). The first was a study of students at the University of Nottingham, and the second, conducted at University College London, analysed teenagers across six English health regions.
It is widely known that giving up smoking is difficult, particularly if you’ve smoked for some time, but perhaps this new report will add to the long list of reasons to quit – and let’s hope this report has an impact on reducing the number of smoking related cases of meningitis.
Read a copy of the report.
Posted in About meningitis & septicaemia by Neil Hardman on 25 March 2010
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