Four members of the crew of MSC Orchestra cruise liner are in hospital, including one who is fighting for his life, following an outbreak of bacterial meningitis,media reports say.

The four were admitted to hospital in the Tuscan port of Livorno on Sunday at the end of a cruise of the ship that belongs to MSC Cruises  A 32-year-old Indonesian crew member is the most ill of the four.

"He is in the intensive care department of Livorno hospital as is another man who is seriously ill, a 47-year-old Italian who worked in the kitchen of the ship. The two other crew members are in the hospital's infectious diseases department. The MSC Orchestra left Livorno to start another cruise late on Sunday," the Italian news agency ANSA reported.