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. The two new malaria cases in the neighbourhood had been reported on Tuesday.
According to the city’s public health department, the two newly infected people contracted the disease from a mosquito flown into Germany on an aircraft or in luggage. Six Frankfurt airport workers had contracted malaria tropica, the most dangerous form of the disease, in July, authorities said. Malaria is a potentially life-threatening mosquito-borne disease that is extremely rare in Germany.
The malaria parasite is spread between humans by some types of mosquitoes, but not through direct human-to-human contact. Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport said it set up traps to catch mosquitoes and sent the insects to a laboratory in Antwerp in Belgium in July and August, but results were not available yet. Health authorities have warned doctors near the airport to consider malaria in patients who come in with a fever.
Airport workers and residents have been urged to seek medical advice in case they display symptoms including fever, chills, headaches, confusion, seizures and breathing difficulties. An airport spokesperson said local public health authorities had the power in principle to order airlines to disinfect aircraft.
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