Docs urge meningitis vaccine every 5 yrs

(ANSA) - Florence, November 24 - The general public must get vaccinated against meningitis every five years because the vaccine doesn't last as long as commonly believed, doctors heard at a medical congress Thursday.
    The warning came after two women died of meningitis in Tuscany earlier this week.
    "The anti-meningitis vaccine does not provide coverage for decades as we thought, but must be repeated every five years," Italian General and Primary Medicine Society President Claudio Cricelli told the society's 33rd national congress in Florence.
    "We're studying the meningitis problem in Tuscany in detail, because it's a scientific novelty," he added.
    "We still don't know why these strains are particularly virulent, we don't understand the model of propagation and most importantly, why they are striking Tuscany so prevalently".
    Cricelli said regional authorities have been extremely prompt in their handling of the outbreak.
    "In any case, we must urge all citizens - including those not considered at risk - to get vaccinated," the doctor told the medical congress.
    Last Tuesday, a 64-year-old retired teacher Lilia Agata Caputo died in the Tuscan town of Viareggio almost a month after being admitted to hospital with meningitis.
    The previous Monday a 45-year-old woman died of sepsis from meningitis C in Florence's Santa Maria Nuova Hospital.
    Meningitis is highly contagious and can be rapidly fatal if left untreated. The maximum incubation period for the meningitis bacteria is 10 days.
    Tuscany and the bordering region of Emilia Romagna have seen a number of meningitis cases since 2015, some of them fatal.