Two Frankfurt Airport Workers Die in Rare Malaria Outbreak

German health officials are investigating a rare cluster of malaria infections linked to Frankfurt Airport after two workers died from the disease and four others were hospitalized. Six people have been diagnosed with malaria tropica, the most dangerous form of malaria, since last month. One of the two people who died became ill in early July, while the other fell sick in mid-August. Frankfurt’s public health department said the four surviving patients had been treated and were no longer in danger. Mosquito traps have now been placed in and around Germany’s largest airport. Fraport, the airport’s operator, said mosquitoes had been caught and were being examined at a tropical medicine laboratory in Antwerp, Belgium. Authorities are also reviewing how airport disease-control measures, including aircraft disinfection and the removal of potential mosquito breeding sites, are being implemented. The Robert Koch Institute believes the infections were caused by an *Anopheles stephensi* mosquito brought into the country on a plane. Frankfurt’s health department said so-called “airport malaria” can occur when mosquitoes from regions where malaria is common arrive in aircraft cabins or baggage holds. Officials emphasized that malaria cannot spread from person to person. Peter Tinnemann, head of Frankfurt’s health department, said the mosquito involved was probably already dead and described the risk to Frankfurt’s general population as low. He also cautioned that ordinary symptoms such as headache and fever should not automatically be interpreted as malaria linked to the airport outbreak. Airport workers have received letters explaining the symptoms and urging them to remain vigilant. Doctors have been asked to consider malaria when treating people who work at or near the airport and have an unexplained fever, since the unusual route of infection could otherwise delay diagnosis. A European review covering airport and baggage-related malaria cases from 1969 through 2024 recorded 145 incidents, including nine in Germany. The Robert Koch Institute said Frankfurt experienced Germany’s last documented airport-malaria case in 2023; that infection was successfully treated.