Not only are bystanders less likely to help someone who has collapsed if they have to do mouth-to-mouth ventilation, many are unable to perform it properly.

Chest compressions alone are just as good if not better in most cases, a Japanese study in The Lancet shows.

Studies show less than a third of people who collapse in public are helped by a bystander.

Surveys reveal many would-be first-aiders are put off by the idea of giving the kiss of life - for fear of catching an infectious disease, for example.

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