By Suzanne Rostler

NEW YORK, Mar 09 (Reuters Health) - Those sapphire-blue eyes may turn heads on the street but they can be a serious disadvantage when it comes to a potentially life-threatening infection, a UK scientist reports.

According to a study described in the March 10th issue of the British Medical Journal, people with light eyes--blue, green or hazel--may be up to six times more likely than their brown-eyed peers to become deaf after a bout of bacterial meningitis, a leading cause of deafness in children.

Only 6% of individuals who became deaf from meningitis had brown eyes, but 94% of patients had light eyes, the study found.

Further research will need to confirm the findings, but Dr. Helen E. Cullington from the University of Southampton in the UK suggests that a higher content of melanin in the inner ear may be protective against the bacterial disease. Melanin, a pigment associated with skin and eye color, is protective against the effects of ultraviolet light and free radicals--disease-causing compounds, she explained.

Studies have also demonstrated an association between pigmentation and hearing loss. People with dark eyes, for instance, are less likely to suffer noise-related hearing loss.

"I propose that melanin also protects tissue from the damage caused by infection, presumably using the same mechanisms of dissipating harmful energy and neutralizing damaging free radicals," Cullington said in an interview with Reuters Health.

Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the meninges, or the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Early symptoms include fever, intense headache, stiff neck, nausea and vomiting. Bacterial meningitis is less common but more dangerous than viral meningitis and strikes about 3,000 Americans every year. About 10% of those who contract the illness die, usually from blood poisoning.

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