Malaria has been detected among workers at Frankfurt Airport, with one employee dead and five others infected.
According to the German newspaper BILD, the cases involve workers in baggage handling. Last month, six people were found to have contracted malaria, one of whom died.
Fraport spokesperson Andreas Sopf said the infection appears to have come from a mosquito or mosquitoes that arrived at the workplace along with passenger luggage. Sopf said all baggage handling staff have been notified to seek medical care immediately if they show symptoms of the disease.
According to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, the last airport malaria case was recorded in 2023, also in Frankfurt. The institute noted that malaria cases in Germany are usually linked to long-distance travelers infected in regions with disease-carrying mosquitoes, and that cases like this one, where a mosquito is brought in as a stowaway, are rare.
Sopf added that aircraft at Frankfurt Airport are thoroughly cleaned after every landing, but insects can still occasionally be transported along with cargo, despite the presence of dedicated mosquito traps in these areas.
He said mosquitoes found at the site will undergo genetic analysis at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp to determine their origin and species. The source of the mosquitoes behind these particular infections has not been disclosed.
