German airport workers die from malaria caught from plane-riding mosquito

Two Frankfurt airport workers have died after contracting malaria from a mosquito believed to have hitched a ride on an incoming flight, according to the city’s health authority.

Airport officials had initially reported one death among six infected employees. The toll rose to two on Wednesday.

Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) points to an imported Anopheles mosquito, likely carried in on an aircraft, as the most likely source of the infection.

Malaria cases are rare in Germany. The RKI says the country’s last airport-linked malaria outbreak was in 2023.

The institute added that the rarity can, however, work against patients, since doctors may not immediately suspect the disease, which delays diagnosis and raises risks of severe illness.

The remaining four infected employees are being treated in hospital, an airport spokesman said, adding that mosquito traps have now been installed on site.

The mosquitoes caught will be transferred to the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium for genetic tests to find out more about their origin.

Malaria is a serious, mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by microscopic parasites. It is spread through Anopheles mosquitoes and can cause symptoms such as nausea, headache and intense waves of fever and chills. The disease causes hundreds of thousands of deaths a year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are treatments if infected patients detect the disease early enough, and they usually make a complete recovery.