Beware Of 'Kissing' Diseases, Doctors Warn

Saint Valentine's Day is observed on 14 February each year. It has evolved into an occasion when lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery and sending of greeting cards. However, medical researchers and experts warn lovers to be careful with kissing, because kissing is a source of several diseases and infections, such as hepatitis B, infectious mononucleosis (or kissing disease), gum diseases, strep throat, infectious diseases from mouth sores,hand, foot, and mouth disease, HIV and meningococcal diseases.


World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies Hepatitis viruses’ infection to be a major disease burden worldwide. According Dr. Olufunmilayo Lesi, a consultant physician and gastroenterologist at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Nigeria belongs to the group of countries highly endemic for this viral hepatitis. Its prevalence is about 10-20 per cent in Nigeria from the extrapolation of 90 million Nigerians. A disease condition that can be transmitted through viral infections A-E, bacteria, drugs, alcohol, certain medications, chemicals, bacteria, poisons, toxins, by other diseases... and through kissing.
"It is a disease condition that spreads like a plague and cracks the largest organ in the body like an earthquake, with long term asymptomatic damage to the liver if the infection is in a chronic stage. The long term damage to the liver restrains the liver from performing its numerous functions," the doctor said.

Kiss may be a source of diseases and infections