Third person dies from malaria in cluster near Germany’s Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt grapples with a rare malaria outbreak tied to air travel, marking three deaths in recent months.
A third person has died from malaria after a recent cluster of cases linked to Frankfurt Airport, in what German officials have described as an extremely rare air-traffic-related outbreak of the tropical disease.
In a statement on Thursday, city administration said the person died at Frankfurt hospital and was one of two infected residents living in the Schwanheim district, in the immediate vicinity of the airport.
“Both individuals had become infected with the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum, even though they had not travelled to a malaria-endemic region and had not worked at the airport,” the statement said.
The malaria parasite is spread between humans by some types of mosquitoes, but not through direct human-to-human contact.