Frankfurt
City in Hesse, Germany; a major European financial centre and air hub.
Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city and busiest air hub, is the site of Europe's largest recorded airport Malaria cluster: eight people caught falciparum malaria at or near its airport by 18 September 2026, and three died.
Last refreshed: 4 October 2026
Timeline for Frankfurt
Mentioned in: Malaria at Frankfurt Airport kills three
Pandemics and BiosecurityBackground
Frankfurt is at the centre of Europe's largest recorded airport Malaria cluster. ECDC reported on 18 September 2026 that eight people with no travel to Malaria-endemic countries had caught Plasmodium falciparum at or near Frankfurt Airport, and three had died. Six worked at the airport; two lived in separate households within 5 km. Europe's earlier airport clusters reached six cases at most. Traps set by the city's health department in Schwanheim and around the airport had caught no Anopheles mosquitoes, according to public broadcaster hessenschau, and parasite genotyping is due at the end of October.
Frankfurt am Main, in Hesse, is Germany's fifth-largest city, with 778,589 inhabitants in 2025. It is home to the European Central Bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and its airport is Germany's busiest, with direct flights to West and Central Africa.
The city is also one of western Europe's five main data-centre hubs. Market-intelligence firm DC Byte put its share at 18% of capacity across those hubs in July 2026, level with Paris and behind London's 39%.