Six employees at Frankfurt Airport in Germany have been infected with malaria, and one of them has died. The cases have been confirmed by the airport’s operator, Fraport, and the Robert Koch Institute.
Four cases were reported in mid-July, but the total number of those affected has now risen to six. Five other employees are receiving specialized medical treatment.
According to preliminary data, the cases may be linked to what is known as “airport malaria”, an extremely rare mode of transmission of the disease outside areas where malaria is endemic.
The main suspicion is that one or more infected mosquitoes may have arrived at the airport in midsummer, carried in luggage or in the cargo hold of a plane coming from an area where malaria is present. The mosquitoes may then have bitten airport workers and infected them.
Mosquito traps have been set up inside the airport, and some have already been caught. Samples will be tested to determine whether they carry the parasite responsible for malaria.
Fraport has also informed employees and urged them to consult a doctor and indicate that they work at the airport if they develop symptoms similar to those of malaria.
Meanwhile, the Robert Koch Institute has reported other cases of malaria during July and August in the Reno-Meno metropolitan area, the origin of which is suspected to be linked to professional activity at Frankfurt Airport.
Health authorities have stressed that there is no person-to-person transmission. Malaria is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito.