In addition, an anti-smoking group said that tobacco company Philip Morris had known about the link between smoking and meningococcal for seven years.

According to Barbara Buckingham, project officer for QUIT Tasmania, a Philip Morris study of a 1994 meningococcal outbreak in western England showed that smoking and passive smoking eroded hairs in the nasal passage that were significant to resisting the disease. The company did not release the results of its study.

More recently, researchers in several states in Australia determined that smokers were four times more likely to carry the meningococcal disease.

Meningococcal, which can cause brain damage, is passed by saliva. The disease's symptoms include fever, chills, headaches, and nausea.

"Young children are especially at risk, especially if their parents smoke, because they're more likely to be carriers, compounded by the danger of inhaling passive smoke," Buckingham said.

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