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2 airport workers die of malaria from mosquito on plane in Germany
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August 28, 2026 / 8:29 AM EDT / CBS/AFP Two workers at Germany's Frankfurt airport who caught malaria from a mosquito thought to have arrived on a plane have died, the city's health authority said this week. The institute said malaria in Germany almost exclusively affects long-haul travelers who were infected in malaria-endemic areas, and that malaria transmitted within a German airport is rare, the BBC reported.
Airport officials had earlier said one employee had perished, with six workers infected. Traps have been installed at the airport and mosquitoes captured will be analyzed in a laboratory to determine their species and origin, BBC News reported.
The Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, said it would analyze the malaria parasites in the patients' blood samples. The Robert Koch Institute said an imported Anopheles mosquito carried over by an aircraft was the likely cause.
The other four infected employees were hospitalized and receiving treatment, said an airport spokesman. The disease is not transmissible from person to person but is always transmitted by mosquitoes," public health officials in Frankfurt said in a letter obtained by the BBC.
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- August 28, 2026 / 8:29 AM EDT / CBS/AFP Two workers at Germany's Frankfurt airport who caught malaria from a mosquito thought to have arrived on a plane have died, the city's health authority said this week.
- Airport officials had earlier said one employee had perished, with six workers infected.
- The Robert Koch Institute said an imported Anopheles mosquito carried over by an aircraft was the likely cause.
- The other four infected employees were hospitalized and receiving treatment, said an airport spokesman.
- Traps have been installed at the airport and mosquitoes captured will be analyzed in a laboratory to determine their species and origin, BBC News reported .
- The institute said malaria in Germany almost exclusively affects long-haul travelers who were infected in malaria-endemic areas, and that malaria transmitted within a German airport is rare, the BBC reported.
- The disease is not transmissible from person to person but is always transmitted by mosquitoes," public health officials in Frankfurt said in a letter obtained by the BBC.
- The Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, said it would analyze the malaria parasites in the patients' blood samples.
Sources
- CBS Newslink