Third malaria death in Germany from outbreak tied to Frankfurt Airport

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One person died from malaria in Frankfurt and another was infected, local health officials said Thursday, the latest cases in a malaria outbreak linked to the city's airport.

Both people lived near the airport, according to the Frankfurt health department, and were likely infected by a mosquito that arrived aboard an aircraft.

The two cases bring the total number of infections around Frankfurt since late August to eight, including three fatalities.

In late August, six Frankfurt Airport employees contracted the disease, two of whom died.

The two new cases announced Thursday involved people who contracted malaria "despite not having traveled to a malaria-endemic area and not having worked at the airport," health authorities said in a statement.

However, they live 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," according to the statement.

The extreme rarity of malaria in Germany can delay diagnosis and increase the risk of severe complications.

The agency urged doctors to "consider the possibility of malaria in patients presenting with unexplained fever, even in the absence of travel to a malaria-endemic area"—particularly those who live near the airport or work there.

Malaria, which is transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito, is a parasitic disease that can cause symptoms such as headaches, nausea, high fever and chills.

The Frankfurt city health department noted that the disease "is not transmitted from person to person."

Malaria causes hundreds of thousands of deaths annually, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Treatments exist, and patients who receive early care generally make a full recovery.

The last recorded case of "airport malaria" in Germany occurred in 2023, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German public health agency.

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