Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease and other illnesses, has been confirmed in at least 12 of around 200 cases of pneumonia in Brescia, northern Italy, authorities said on Tuesday.
Four men, three of whom are in a critical condition, contracted a deadly disease spread by rat urine in water while picking mushrooms in the Vicenza area.
Six mayors of towns in the Ligurian province of Savona have signed decrees stating that they will only accept migrants who come with a clean bill of health.
An Italian nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone with medical charity Emergency has been cured and has left hospital, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
Italy's tradition of blessing olive branches on Palm Sunday should be ditched this year for fear of spreading a bacteria devastating trees
in the south, farmers warned on Wednesday.
Brussels called for "complete vigilance"
on Monday to stop the spread of a strain of bacteria killing olive trees in southern Italy, the European Union's second biggest producer of olive oil.
Human remains unearthed in a Tuscan cemetery could reveal vital clues as to how Italians died of cholera, in turn helping scientists combat the deadly disease.
