--- title: Flight Attendant Dies After Contracting Measles description: An El Al Airlines flight attendant has reportedly died months after developing measles, according to Israeli media. canonical: https://time.com/5573491/flight-attendant-coma-measles/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-18T19:36:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T23:51:36.000Z article:section: Health og:title: A Flight Attendant Has Reportedly Died Months After Contracting Measles og:description: She got it on a flight between New York and Israel og:url: https://time.com/5573491/flight-attendant-coma-measles/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa77fe25580670b1/6989489416d884778dc34f48/flight-attendant-measles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Low Angle View Of Airplane Flying Against Sky og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Flight Attendant Has Reportedly Died Months After Contracting Measles twitter:description: She got it on a flight between New York and Israel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa77fe25580670b1/6989489416d884778dc34f48/flight-attendant-measles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Flight Attendant Has Reportedly Died Months After Contracting Measles > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:51 PM UTCPublished: Apr 18, 2019 7:36 PM UTC  Getty Images/EyeEm  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:51 PM UTCPublished: Apr 18, 2019 7:36 PM UTC A flight attendant has died months after Israeli health officials said she contracted measles in New York, Israel or a flight between the two locations. [The _Times of Israel_](https://www.timesofisrael.com/el-al-flight-attendant-dies-4-months-after-contracting-measles-on-plane-from-ny/?fbclid=IwAR23Y4DHqYcKIdScBHhm7KCRFP0HMEruvPPpeFd81Q12wxFQ8D-oHU3WAsc) reports that 43-year-old El Al Airlines flight attendant Rotem Amitai had worked a flight from New York City’s JFK Airport to Tel Aviv just days before she was hospitalized for measles. Her condition worsened over time and she developed encephalitis, or brain inflammation, [according to CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/health/measles-israel-flight-attendant/index.html). “Rotem was a wonderful person and a dedicated mother,” her family said in a statement provided to the _Times of Israel._ Amitai reportedly had been vaccinated against measles as a child but only received one dose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has since 1989 recommended that all children [get two doses](https://time.com/5579675/should-i-get-a-measles-booster-shot/) of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, since doing so provides 97% effective protection against the measles virus. One dose of the MMR vaccine is 93% effective against measles, [according to the CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/hcp/about.html). Amitai’s case, the third measles-related death among Israeli citizens this year, illustrates the possible severity of the measles virus. Although it typically results in relatively minor symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose and rash, the contagious virus can lead to life-threatening complications such as encephalitis. In 2017 alone, 110,000 people died from measles, [the World Health Organization estimates](http://time.com/5570810/global-measles-cases/). More than 364,000 measles cases have been [reported by the WHO](https://www.who.int/immunization/monitoring%5Fsurveillance/burden/vpd/surveillance%5Ftype/active/measles%5Fmonthlydata/en/) this year. Amitai’s is the third death No one in the U.S. has died from measles since 2015, but outbreaks across the country have raised alarm among health officials. With almost 1,200 cases of measles confirmed so far this year, the U.S. has seen its [highest number](https://time.com/5598462/measles-cases-uptick-cdc/) of diagnoses in 25 years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5573491/flight-attendant-coma-measles/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5573491/flight-attendant-coma-measles/"},"headline":"A Flight Attendant Has Reportedly Died Months After Contracting Measles","datePublished":"2019-04-18T19:36:42.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T23:51:36.000Z","description":"She got it on a flight between New York and Israel","url":"https://time.com/5573491/flight-attendant-coma-measles/","keywords":["Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa77fe25580670b1/6989489416d884778dc34f48/flight-attendant-measles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa77fe25580670b1/6989489416d884778dc34f48/flight-attendant-measles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Low Angle View Of Airplane Flying Against Sky","caption":"Low Angle View Of Airplane Flying Against Sky","creditText":"Getty Images/EyeEm","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5573491/flight-attendant-coma-measles/","name":"A Flight Attendant Has Reportedly Died Months After Contracting Measles"}}]}] ```