Two employees at Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest, have died after contracting malaria in a rare outbreak that ultimately infected six workers, health officials confirmed on Wednesday.
German public health authorities believe the mosquitoes responsible entered the country aboard an aircraft, triggering an outbreak first detected in July.
A spokesperson for airport operator Fraport initially told the BBC that one employee had died from the infection. Public health officials later confirmed on Wednesday that the death toll had risen to two.
“We have provided comprehensive information to all employees and encourage them to consult a doctor if they experience any symptoms,” the Fraport spokesperson said.
The Frankfurt Public Health Department, which is leading the investigation, has installed mosquito traps around the airport. Captured specimens will be analysed in a laboratory to determine their species and place of origin.
According to the BBC, the six infected workers held different jobs across different areas of the airport. Officials are still examining blood samples to establish whether all six were bitten by a single mosquito or by several separate insects.
In a letter sent to media outlets on Wednesday, Frankfurt health officials sought to reassure the wider public. “For the population of Frankfurt, the risk is considered very, very low. The disease is not transmissible from person to person but is always transmitted by mosquitoes,” the letter stated, adding that laboratory results identifying the source of the infections were not expected for several weeks.
The outbreak was first reported in July, when four workers were confirmed infected. The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s federal agency for disease control and public health, said at the time that the four had fallen ill between 4 and 6 July, and that the mosquitoes had arrived by plane.
The institute noted that malaria in Germany almost exclusively affects long-haul travellers infected in malaria-endemic regions, making airport-transmitted cases like this one rare. “The lack of a travel history can lead to a delayed diagnosis. A delayed diagnosis increases the risk of a severe course of the diseases,” the institute said in its epidemiological bulletin, adding that the last such “airport malaria” case also occurred at Frankfurt Airport, in 2023.
Malaria is transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes and is most common in tropical countries, according to the World Health Organization. Though preventable and curable, the parasitic disease can cause symptoms ranging from mild to life-threatening, and does not spread between humans.
