Third malaria death reported near Frankfurt Airport in rare outbreak

A third person has died from malaria in an outbreak centred on Frankfurt Airport, German officials said, in what they described as an extremely rare instance of the tropical disease being spread through air traffic.

The city of Frankfurt said in a statement on Thursday that one of two infected residents of the Schwanheim district, north of the airport, had died while receiving care at the city's university hospital. Both individuals were infected with Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes the most severe form of malaria, even though neither had travelled to a malaria-endemic region nor worked at the airport.

The deaths follow an earlier announcement on August 27, when city officials reported that two people employed at the airport had died of malaria and that four others had recovered from infection.

Malaria is transmitted between humans by certain types of mosquito; people cannot pass the infection directly to one another.

Frankfurt Airport said mosquitoes collected in traps during July and August had been sent to a laboratory in Antwerp, Belgium, for testing, but the results were not yet available.

An airport spokesperson noted that local public health authorities have the power in principle to require airlines to disinfect aircraft.