Laconia
Regional unit of the Peloponnese, Greece; capital Sparta.
Laconia's 2009-2012 vivax Malaria outbreak in the Evrotas valley became Europe's reference case in September 2026, when an eight-case Malaria cluster at Frankfurt Airport, with three deaths, raised the question of local spread.
Last refreshed: 4 October 2026
Timeline for Laconia
Mentioned in: Malaria at Frankfurt Airport kills three
Pandemics and BiosecurityBackground
Laconia is a regional unit in the south-east of the Peloponnese, Greece, with its capital at Sparta. The Evrotas valley grows citrus and olives.
The region had Greece's first large outbreak of locally caught Malaria since the 1950s. From 2009 to 2012 Greece recorded locally acquired Plasmodium vivax Malaria in the Evrotas area, carried by native mosquitoes among farm workers from endemic countries. Of the 63 vivax cases Greece reported between May and December 2011, 57 came from Evrotas. Mosquito control and active case-finding ended that chain of transmission.
That ending is why Laconia matters now. It showed that Europe's native Anopheles mosquitoes can still pass on Malaria, and that confirmed local spread can be stopped. When eight people with no travel history caught falciparum malaria at or near Frankfurt Airport in 2026, and three died, Laconia was the precedent for both halves of that lesson.