FLIGHT ATTENDANT DIES AFTER CONTRACTING MEASLES ON PLANE FROM NEW YORK

BY BRENDAN COLE ON 8/13/19 AT 11:13 AM EDT

A flight attendant on Israel's national carrier who fell ill with measles on a plane she was working on five months ago, has died.

Rotem Amitai, 43, was on board El AL flight 002 from John F. Kennedy Airport to Tel Aviv on March 26 when she got sick.

Her condition deteriorated and she was moved to an isolated intensive care unit, after slipping into a coma and suffering brain damage.

She was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis, which is a complication of the measles virus that is similar to having both meningitis and encephalitis. She died in Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, The Times of Israel reported.

It is not clear where she first came into contact with measles but Itamar Grotto, the associate director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health said in April that she could have caught it in New York, Israel or on a flight between the two destinations, Israel National News reported.

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