A 62-year-old woman infected with meningitis has died in the Tuscan port city of Livorno, a day after a 45-year-old woman died of the disease in Florence.
Lilia Agata Caputo, a retired teacher who lived in the Tuscan coastal city of Viareggio, died a month after she was admitted to hospital in Livorno with a high temperature. Caputo died of complications from a non-contagious bacterial form of meningitis, according to doctors.
On Monday, Italian health services were giving preventive treatment to around 20 people who were in close contact with a Florence woman who died of sepsis from meningitis C soon after reaching hospital.
There have been several meningitis cases in the Tuscany region surrounding Florence and the neighbouring Emilia Romagna region since last year, some of them fatal.
Italy's health minister Beatrice Lorenzin has strongly urged the public to get vaccinated against the disease.
