Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the parents of four-year-old Anna Rosa Bartolotta and will send carabinieri into schools across northern Palermo to check children's vaccination records, after the child died of diphtheria earlier this week. The checks, ordered by juvenile prosecutor Claudia Caramanna, begin on the first day of the school year; penalties for non-compliance range from 100 to 500 euros and can include loss of parental authority in cases of serious negligence.
The death, Italy's first from diphtheria since 1991 and its first case since 1996, has spurred a 10% surge in vaccine requests among Palermo paediatricians in 48 hours. A cousin of the child tested positive for diphtheria on 22 August and remains hospitalised. Health officials describe an ongoing micro-outbreak requiring broader vaccination coverage in Sicily, which has low paediatric immunisation rates. Authorities are working to identify the index patient and asymptomatic carriers. The Health Ministry reaffirmed there is no link between vaccines and autism, while Palermo's city council plans an information campaign and a regional child-rights advocate called for a strategic push against vaccine conspiracy theories.