Overview
- The airport operator Fraport says six employees contracted a form of malaria linked to the airport and confirmed one death while the Frankfurt health authority later reported two deaths on Wednesday.
- Germany’s Robert Koch Institute has identified an imported Anopheles mosquito carried on a plane as the most likely cause and flagged that lack of travel history can delay diagnosis.
- The infected workers first fell ill between July 4 and July 6, and the remaining patients are being treated in hospital for the condition known as airport or Odyssean malaria.
- Mosquito traps have been deployed across Frankfurt Airport and captured insects have been sent to the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp for genetic analysis to determine species and likely origin.
- Airport malaria is rare in Germany with the last airport-linked case in Frankfurt recorded in 2023, and authorities say the probe and enhanced monitoring aim to prevent further cases and speed diagnosis for exposed staff.