A malaria outbreak linked to Frankfurt Airport has claimed a third life, while another person has been infected, local health officials said.
Both individuals lived near the airport, the Frankfurt health department said. Investigators believe they were likely bitten by a mosquito that arrived in Germany aboard an aircraft.
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The latest cases bring the number of infections reported in and around Frankfurt since late August to eight. Three people have died.
Six Frankfurt Airport employees contracted malaria in late August, and two of them later died.
The two newly identified patients lived in the “immediate vicinity” of Frankfurt Airport, in the Schwanheim district.
“No further cases of malaria have been reported to the public health department since the beginning of the week,” the health department said.
Because malaria is extremely uncommon in Germany, doctors may take longer to identify it, potentially raising the risk of serious complications.
The agency urged physicians to “consider the possibility of malaria in patients presenting with unexplained fever, even in the absence of travel to a malaria-endemic area” — especially when patients live near the airport or work there.
Malaria is a parasitic disease spread by Anopheles mosquitoes. It can trigger headaches, nausea, high fever and chills.
The Frankfurt city health department emphasized that the illness “is not transmitted from person to person”.
Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Effective treatments are available, and patients who receive prompt medical care generally make a full recovery.
The most recent recorded case of “airport malaria” in Germany was reported in 2023, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s public health agency.
