A four-year-old girl dies in Palermo due to suspected diphtheria and without vaccination

A four‑year‑old girl has died in Palermo, Italy, suspected of diphtheria, a potentially fatal infectious disease against which the child was not vaccinated. The little girl died at the Di Cristina Children’s Hospital and the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation to clarify what happened and has ordered an autopsy.

The child first went to the hospital on August 13 with fever, vomiting, and loss of appetite. After being examined she was discharged with a diagnosis of tonsillitis and her parents were told to return to the emergency department if it worsened. Two days later she returned to the hospital with fever that did not respond to treatment, food refusal, weakness, and a reduced response to stimuli, according to the Italian agency ANSA.

Her condition continued to deteriorate. The next day she had to be intubated due to respiratory failure and was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at Di Cristina Hospital. The doctors resorted to advanced life‑support techniques, but the little girl ultimately died during the night of August 20.

“We did everything possible to save her from the moment we took charge of her, but unfortunately the expected result was not achieved,” explained Domenico Cipolla, the medical director of the Civil Hospital. The definitive confirmation of the cause of death is still pending: “We are awaiting the results from the Superior Health Institute, but based on the analyses performed the cause of death appears to be diphtheria. A very serious infection that can be lethal,” he added.

The girl had not been vaccinated by her parents’ decision. According to RaiNews, the parents explained to the doctors that they associated a relative’s autism case with a vaccine. This association lacks scientific support: research conducted over decades has found no causal link between vaccines and autism. The other three siblings of the child have now been vaccinated by health authorities.

The Palermo Prosecutor’s Office is investigating both the circumstances that led to the child not receiving mandatory vaccination in Italy and the medical care she received. The Carabinieri have collected the medical records to reconstruct the care pathway and determine whether the procedures were correct. According to ANSA, there had been no diphtheria deaths in Italy since 1991, and the last confirmed non‑fatal case dates back to 1996.

In addition, a cousin of the little girl, also four years old, remains hospitalized with similar symptoms, although she is not in a serious condition and had received the first doses of vaccination, according to Italian media. Diphtheria is an infection primarily caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Some strains produce a toxin capable of damaging tissues and reaching vital organs through the bloodstream.