A flight attendant has been in a coma after she contracted measles following a flight from New York.
The Israeli woman, working for Israel’s El Al airline, reportedly has swelling of the brain called encephalitis, which is caused by measles.
The health minister said the woman fell into a coma for ten days after developing a fever on March 31. Unable to breathe on her own, she is in the intensive care unit at Medical Center in Kfar Saba, according to CNN.
It is believed the woman may have been exposed to the infection while in Israel or New York, or a flight between the two.
There are currently outbreaks in both Israel and New York, leaving health officials to believe the woman may have contracted the viral infection from a passenger.
There have been around 329 cases in Brooklyn since October 2018, most incidents are from Orthodox Jewish communities.
The measles cases in Brooklyn and in Rockland County, New York have been traced to unvaccinated members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community who came from Israel, where an outbreak is also happening.
Like many others, the flight attendant received only one dose of measles vaccine as a child.
Health authorities say the outbreaks in Israel and the United States started with parents who chose not to have their children immunized.
Dr. William Schaffner, an adviser to the CDC on vaccines, said: “I knew this was going to happen sooner or later.
“We have the reintroduction of a serious viral infection with a population that’s withholding the vaccine from their children, and now it’s spreading beyond that population.”
A state of emergency has been declared in New York. Mayor Bill De Blasio has also threatened parents that do not get their children immunized.
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