Two Frankfurt Airport workers die of malaria after 'mosquito arrives on plane'
Two German airport workers die of malaria after 'mosquito arrives on plane'
Two employees at Frankfurt Airport have died from malaria after a rare outbreak infected six workers. German health officials suspect the mosquitoes arrived on a plane, marking an unusual case of airport-acquired malaria. Traps have been set, and lab tests are underway to identify the mosquito species and origin. The risk to the general public remains very low, as malaria is not transmitted person-to-person.
The lack of a travel history can lead to a delayed diagnosis. A delayed diagnosis increases the risk of a severe course of the diseases.
- M95D
Want to know the real tragedy here? Those deaths could be prevented if the hospital had better software and procedures. Like some other people noticed, malaria is rare in Germany. Doctors would not think of this diagnosis until it's too late.
But...
Malaria can be detected by modern hematology automated analyzers. I'm talking about ordinary hematology analyzers, not the ones specialized for malaria. All hospitals do at least one CBC+DIFF for all patients. If anyone cares to look at the warning flags and scattergrams [1], they could have seen that something's wrong, do a blood smear and confirm malaria in 30 minutes. It is a bit difficult, to be honest. Only a lab doc/tech would know how to interpret a scattergram, and some of the flags are extremely unreliable (not iRBC), but that doesn't mean they can be simply ignored.
Unfortunately, in most labs, doctors who check and validate results, do that from the lab software app, not directly from the analyzer, and - devs, take notes! - most hospital/laboratory software I saw (and I saw many) ignore all flags and graphics send by the analyzers. They just take the numbers and that's it. When doctors look at a report, they don't see flags or scattergrams, just the numbers. Can't even tell if the numbers are reliable or not. And this is how malaria diagnosis, and lots of others, are missed.
- sagarun
I still remember they used disinsect the aircraft cabin, before you land in Indian airports with an aerosol spray https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/spray
- Havoc
Kinda wild. I spent most of my childhood a couple hours drive from a malaria region and never heard of anyone getting sick locally that hadn’t travelled that way. So multiple people in Germany seems surprising.
- briandw
They didn’t mention the strain. My understanding is that there are 5 strains. P. malariae is common and not particularly deadly while. When i visited Africa, all of the locals had had malaria multiple times. P. falciparum is extremely nasty and can kill quickly.
- UJ-FLD-ScrTr
Two months passed between the two deaths. This already happened once in Frankfurt in 2023, fortunately without fatalities.
https://www.n-tv.de/panorama/Zwei-Tote-durch-Flughafen-Malar...
- mmgeorgi
Coincidentally just watched the fascinating history of the deadliest thing ever:
- testing22321
I got malaria twice in Africa. First time bad, second time REAL bad. I thought about death a little.
There was a good story of a Dutchman living in Mali who got malaria a few times (everyone does). It’s manageable with the meds.
Anyway he flies home, then develops symptoms. Goes to hospital and they freak. Full hazmat suits, isolation, doctors visiting from all over because they’d never seen it. Guy ends up dying because they wouldn’t give him the meds, because they didn’t know if it was safe, or what the right thing to do was.
Moral of the story is that for anyone spending time in malaria zones, take the meds home with you. If you get symptomatic, take the meds and maybe not go to hospital in the developed world.
Meds I took was “coartem” and an injectable.
- garbawarb
Could these mosquitoes lead to malaria becoming endemic in Germany?