Israeli stewardess dies from measles caught on flight

[Guest]

Underscores the hidden risks of being a Flight Attendant.

Israeli stewardess dies from measles caught on flight

• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49334572

Image copyright AFP Image caption The stewardess caught the disease in April

An Israeli air flight attendant has died after contracting measles on a flight from New York to Israel, Israeli media say.

The 43-year-old woman caught the disease on the El Al (Israel's national airline) flight in April.

It is the third death third from measles in Israel since November, after none there for 15 years, reports say.

Measles is one of the world's most infectious illnesses but until recently cases had been declining.

The stewardess, who has not been named, suffered brain damage due to complications from the virus and had been in an induced coma, according to media reports.

 

The airline issued a statement, saying it was "bowing its head over the death of a member of a member of El Al's air crew", the Jewish Press reported.

The latest fatality comes after an 18-month-old toddler and an 82-year-old woman died from the disease in Jerusalem at the end of last year.

In recent decades, successful vaccination programmes have ensured measles has become rare in many places.

But there has been a rise in the number of cases of measles around the world in the past few years.

In the US, there has been a resurgence after disease was declared eliminated there in 2000, while in Europe the number of cases have tripled since 2017.

[J.O.]

Assuming she had not been vaccinated, why take a job that exposes you to so many people in a confined space?