Two Employees Die Of ‘Airport Malaria,’ Officials Try To Calm Fears
Mosquitoes carried into Germany from a malaria region have killed two workers at the country’s busiest airport.
Six Frankfurt Airport employees caught malaria on the job, according to German outlet Hessischer Rundfunk. The first of the two victims died in early July. The second death came in August. All four surviving patients have since left the hospital.
The airport operator, Fraport, identified the infections as airport malaria, CNN reported. The label covers the rare cases in which the disease spreads beyond the regions where it circulates, according to CNN, citing the Frankfurt health department. The cause of the first case emerged only after the patient had died.
Two Frankfurt airport workers have died after contracting malaria in an outbreak believed to have been caused by an infected mosquito brought into Germany on an aircraft.
Airport officials had initially reported one death among six infected employees. The toll rose to two on… pic.twitter.com/6bN2v8ixmE
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) August 26, 2026
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) confirmed four infections in mid-July, with the patients falling ill between July 4 and July 6, according to its Epidemiological Bulletin. The count reached six by late August. Germany’s national public health agency assumes an infected Anopheles mosquito arrived by aircraft and passed on the infection, according to the bulletin.
The institute has urged physicians to consider airport malaria when patients present unexplained fever and report no recent travel abroad, according to the bulletin. That advice covers anyone working at or near airports served by intercontinental passenger and cargo flights, according to the RKI. (Read more from “Two Employees Die Of ‘Airport Malaria,’ Officials Try To Calm Fears” HERE)
