Airport Malaria

Malaria contracted in or near an airport, transmitted by mosquitos that have been carried by planes from malarial regions.

Neither the transmission of insects nor airport malaria are new. According to a 2000 W.H.O. report, the first discovery of insects in an aircraft dates to 1928, when 10 species were found onboard the dirigible Graf Zeppelin. The import of malaria apparently dates back to at least 1930, when malarial mosquitos entered Brazil, probably by ship, causing an epidemic that infected some 300,000 of whom 16,000 died.

The W.H.O. report estimated that between 1969–99, 87 people living near airports in 12 countries contracted malaria. The report’s authors observed, “Malaria-carrying mosquitoes may enter the passenger cabin before take-off or during stopovers or may survive the trip in the luggage hold. Whatever its mode of travel, imported malaria is frequently fatal, due to late diagnosis by physicians not primed to the risk of malaria.”

The risk of airport malaria has risen as increased international travel coincides with climate change, as James H. Diaz, an environmental health expert at Louisiana State University, explained:

As international travel increases and climate patterns change – particularly warming nighttime temperatures and increased precipitation – the U.S. becomes a more stable ecosystem for these disease-carrying insects to survive and flourish for longer periods of time.

Of course, as Science Daily noted, “This type of international transmission creates an increased possibility for the reintroduction of not just malaria, but other detrimental diseases such as dengue and chikungunya fever, into areas where they are not normally found.”