One person died in Frankfurt after contracting malaria and another was infected, today announced the health service of that German city, advancing that the two lived near the airport, where two employees also died with malaria at the end of August.
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17/09/2026
by
Lusa
Odata revealed today increased to eight the total number of infected people and to three the number of deaths related to a rare series of cases of “airport malaria” registered since the end of august around these facilities.
This expression is used to describe the particular form of this disease, which develops when an infected Anopheles mosquito travels aboard an aeroplane from an endemic zone to a non-demic and contaminating human zone.
The symptoms of this parasitic disease, which is not transmitted among people, include headaches, nausea, strong fever peaks and chills.
In late August, six Frankfurt airport employees contracted the disease and two died.
The two new cases announced today are those of people who have contracted malaria although they have not previously traveled to an endemic area of malaria and have not worked at the airport, they explained the health authorities in a statement.
However, the place where they live is “near Frankfurt airport” in the Schwanheim district.
“ Since the beginning of the week, no other case of malaria has been reported to the public health service,” he said, who called on doctors to “consider possible malaria in patients with unexplained fever, even in the absence of travel to an endemic area of malaria.”.
This is valid “in particular” for people working at the airport or nearby, the health authorities clarified.
There are no “panic signs in Schwanheim”, I wanted to reassure the French news agency AFP Peter Tonnemann, head of the public health service in Frankfurt, that the telephone service put in place by the city in case of doubts is not “overcharged with calls”.
According to this doctor, authorities still do not have any data on the size of the population of infected mosquitoes.
“Floor traps have been installed around the affected area and authorities are monitoring. The results should be made public in the coming days,” he said.
Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. There are treatments and patients treated early usually recover completely.
The previous episode of “airport malaria” recorded in Germany dates back to 2023, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German health agency. The rarity of this disease in this country may delay diagnosis and increase the risk of serious complications.