KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Health officials say two men from South Africa whose bodies were found at a motel in southwest Missouri died of cerebral malaria.

The Greene County Medical Examiner’s office said Monday that 45-year-old Gerrit Strydom and 44-year-old James Bethel died in early May of cerebral malaria, a treatable disease transmitted by an infected mosquito.

The medical examiner’s office says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the diagnosis.

Tom Vandeberg, a forensic investigator with the medical examiner’s office, says both men likely became infected about the same time in South Africa and died within hours of each other. Their bodies were found May 9 at a Springfield motel.

He says the men had been ill and searched the Internet for their symptoms during their motorcycle trip across Route 66.