Two employees working in Germany's Frankfurt airport died from a malaria infection, after an unusual outbreak of the disease infected six workers in one of the country's busiest airports, as per reports on Thursday.
The infection was likely caused by mosquitoes who boarded the plane and flew to Germany. The disease is primarily prevalent in tropical countries as per the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Malaria is caused by a parasite and cannot spread from one person to another. It is instead carried by vectors such as mosquitoes. Symptoms can range from moderate to potentially fatal.
Six personnel with different job roles that they were carrying out in different parts of the airport were infected by malaria. Officials are analysing their blood samples to check if it was caused by a lone mosquito or six of them. It also installed traps to catch the mosquitoes in order to analyse them in a laboratory and find out its species and country of origin.
The German federal government agency known as The Robert Koch Institute stated in its epidemiological bulletin that malaria in Germany tends to exclusively affect travellers who picked up the infection from areas that are native to the disease. It noted that such a case of malaria travelling within an airport is uncommon.
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"The lack of a travel history can lead to a delayed diagnosis. A delayed diagnosis increases the risk of a severe course of the disease," its bulletin said.
The previous case of airport malaria was also in 2023 at Frankfurt Airport, as per the health organisation.
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