A flight attendant of Israeli flag carrier El Al has died, about five months after contracting measles during a flight from the U.S. city of New York.
The attendant, Rotem Amitai, a 43-year-old mother of three, was exposed to the virus on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in late March.
After returning to Israel, she began to show measles symptoms, including high fever and typical rash. She was hospitalized in isolation, suffering from respiratory failure and unconsciousness.
Despite the intensive care she received, her condition worsened and she went into a coma. Amitai was previously vaccinated in one dose against measles, but according to the Israeli Ministry of Health, only those who received two doses are considered immune with ninety-seven percent efficiency.
Measles is a serious infectious disease manifested by cough, runny nose, high fever, characteristic rash, photophobia, oral lesions and inflammation of the eye conjunctiva
The scans showed that she suffered from a widespread brain injury called meningoencephalitis, which is known as one of the complications of measles.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Health data, as of July 11, 2019, there were 4,292 measles patients in the state, 1,444 of whom are in the city of Jerusalem.
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