An Israeli El Al flight attendant who contracted measles after taking a flight from New York to Israel, passed away this week after spending four months in a coma, according to Israeli officials.
The mother-of-three, Rotem Amitai, 43, died on Aug. 13 at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva after months of hospitalisation, a spokeswoman for the hospital told AFP.
Amitai worked as a flight attendant for the Israeli airline El Al and began to feel unwell after taking a flight to Tel Aviv in late March, according to local media reports.
Measles symptoms tend to appear 10 to 12 days after exposure, and initial symptoms including a high fever, red, watery eyes, a runny nose, and a cough.
Amitai was admitted to a hospital a couple of days after experiencing symptoms of the disease, and eventually fell into a coma after suffering from encephalitis—a complication of the disease which causes brain swelling.
“The immediate cause of death was not defined as measles,” the Israeli health ministry said in a statement. “However, the disability (caused by) the disease was a secondary cause.”
“We are grieving and mourning her passing before her time,” the statement read.
The mother’s employer expressed its grief over her death, which is the third measles fatality in Israel in the past 15 years. The airline said it is working to ensure its staff are fully vaccinated against the virus.
“El Al mourns the death of a member of the airline’s flight crew. We have taken steps to have our air crews inoculated,” it said in a statement.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the bereaved family and will continue to stand by them.”
In 2017, measles caused 110,000 deaths worldwide.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the controversial order amid what he said was a “measles crisis” in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section, where more than 250 people have gotten measles since September. Officials blamed the outbreak on “anti-vaxxers.”
The order applies to anyone living, working, or going to school in the neighborhood and requires all unvaccinated people at risk of exposure to the virus to get the vaccine, including children over six months old.