Two employees have died from malaria at Frankfurt Airport, Germany, following a rare outbreak that infected six workers. The first death was recorded on Thursday, and the second was reported today.
German health authorities believe that mosquitoes reached one of Europe's busiest airports, but they assured the public that the risk to the population is extremely low because the disease is transmitted exclusively by mosquitoes and not from person to person.
According to the German news agency dpa, the first death occurred in July, and the cause of death was unclear at that time. The second death happened in August of this year.
The Frankfurt Public Health Department is currently investigating the outbreak. BBC reported that six men working in different positions and areas of the airport are infected. Authorities are analyzing blood samples to determine whether they were infected by one mosquito or six different ones.
The other affected individuals are receiving medical treatment and recovering. An airport representative stated that traps have been installed throughout the building, and captured mosquitoes are being analyzed in the laboratory to determine their species and origin.
This same airport representative urged all staff to report details and recommended seeking medical attention if symptoms appear.
The outbreak was first detected in July. The Robert Koch Institute, a state German body and research institute for infectious diseases and public health, initially reported that four to six employees were sick and that the mosquitoes arrived by plane.
According to the institute, cases of malaria in Germany are almost exclusively linked to long-term travelers arriving from endemic areas, and transmission of malaria within a German airport is a rare occurrence. The last case of malaria at an airport was recorded in 2023, also in Frankfurt.
Malaria, as the World Health Organization (WHO) reminds us, is a disease spread by a specific type of mosquito that bites people and is mainly found in tropical countries. The infection, which can be prevented and cured, is caused by a parasite and is not transmitted from person to person, although its symptoms can range from mild to potentially fatal.