FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters Health) Jan 09 - Health authorities in northern Italy announced on Wednesday the start of a mass vaccination programme against meningitis, after an upsurge of the disease in Lombardy.

The programme, due to begin 20 January, is the first mass vaccination against meningitis ever carried out in Italy and will cost 250,000 euros.

The meningitis C vaccination is recommended for about 10,000 children and teenagers who live in the area around Magenta, a village 6 kilometres from Milan.

Despite the launch of a meningitis vaccination campaign in September in Lombardy, 6 cases of bacterial meningitis have been recorded in Magenta and the surrounding area in 45 days.

Local health authorities will monitor the efficacy of the treatment by following the vaccinated individuals until 2007.

"This trial combines prevention with study as it centres on an area where more cases of meningitis are recorded compared to the national average," Lombardy's regional health councillor Carlo Borsani said in a statement.

According to data from the National Health Institute, starting in 1994 most bacterial meningitis cases in Italy were caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. The next most common pathogen was Neisseria meningitidis.

Last year Lombardy recorded 187 cases of meningitis.

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