Smoking during pregnancy can treble the baby’s chance of developing meningitis, researchers warn, and children exposed to smoke from a parent’s cigarettes at home are twice as likely to have the deadly illness. Scientists estimate that more than 600 children a year in Britain develop meningitis as a result of their parents’ second-hand smoke. They think that passive smoking gradually weakens children’s immune system making them more susceptible to the illness. Every year around 2,500 people develop meningitis a year in Britain although it is most common in the under 5s. Up to 1 in 20 die and 1 in 6 are left severely disabled.
Smoking during pregnancy can treble the baby’s chance of developing meningitis, researchers warn, and children exposed to smoke from a parent’s cigarettes at home are twice as likely to have the deadly illness. Scientists estimate that more than 600 children a year in Britain develop meningitis as a result of their parents’ second-hand smoke. They think that passive smoking gradually weakens children’s immune system making them more susceptible to the illness. Every year around 2,500 people develop meningitis a year in Britain although it is most common in the under 5s. Up to 1 in 20 die and 1 in 6 are left severely disabled.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2245652/Meningitis-link-smoking-pregnancy-Cigarettes-treble-childs-chance-developing-disease.html#ixzz2EeLkmPRL
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