A measles-related complication leads an Israeli flight attendant to go into a coma

An Israeli flight attendant is in a coma after contracting measles, Israeli officials said.

The 43-year-old woman who works as an air hostess for El Al, Israel's national airline, was hospitalized in Tel Aviv at the end of March.

The Israeli Ministry of Health announced that a passenger was suffering from measles during a New York-Israel flight on March 26 and had asked passengers and crew to be vigilant with regard to the symptoms of the easily transmissible disease.

"There is a misconception that measles is a trivial and inconsequential disease," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH.

"Some of these complications can be very serious," he explained, "as we see with this flight attendant."

As the air hostess struggles to survive, Israeli health officials would not think that she is passing on the disease to passengers.