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El Al officials have asked pbadengers and crew members to monitor the symptoms of measles and report them immediately to health professionals.
David Silverman / Getty Images
Israeli public health officials urge crew members of national air carriers to ensure that they have received the appropriate dosage of measles vaccine after a flight attendant has contracted the deadly disease, probably in New York.
Officials from the Israeli Ministry of Health said a 43-year-old flight attendant from the national airline El Al had returned to Israel at the end of last month from John F. International Airport. Kennedy in New York. The state of New York has been a battleground for concomitant measles outbreaks in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as in Rockland County. However, because of "the altered mental state of the woman," officials said it was not possible to confirm where and when she contracted the virus.
Eyal Bbadon, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Ministry of Health, said the woman, who would have been vaccinated as a child, was admitted to the hospital on March 31 and developed encephalitis, a serious complication due to measles that causes the brain to swell. . Wednesday, in a statement, Bbadon said the woman was unconscious.
Itamar Grotto, Associate Director General of the Ministry, told CNN that this woman was "in a deep coma for 10 days, and we are now hopeful for the better".
Israeli health authorities have issued an alert earlier this month about a measles patient who traveled between New York and Tel Aviv on March 26 and 27 on flight 2 El Al. pbadengers and crew members to monitor symptoms and report them immediately to health care professionals.
El Al said in a statement to the Jerusalem Post that he "operates according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health."
"The department gave specific instructions to all pbadengers on the flight. If you have any other questions, contact your family doctor or the Ministry of Health, "said the airline.
It does not appear that the patient transmitted the virus to other people on the flight.
Bbadon said the public health experts had not been able to talk to the woman because she was unconscious but that her mother had told them that she had received all the mandatory vaccinations for children, which in the 1970s would have included a dose of a vaccine to protect against measles and other childhood diseases. Israel now recommends two doses of MMR / MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox), but it is not known if the woman received the second dose.
US public health experts have stated that a dose of MMR vaccine is about 93% effective in preventing measles, a highly contagious virus that can have serious consequences – pneumonia, hearing loss, brain damage and death.
Lena H. Sun of the Washington Post reported that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that children receive two doses of MMR vaccine – the first at 12-15 months and the second at 4-6 years of age.
Sun adds, "People born between 1957 and 1989 usually received only one dose of MMR. One dose is about 93% effective for measles prevention, but anyone in this age group can still receive a second, said Russell Faust, medical director of the Michigan Department of Health, county of Michigan. Oakland. "
"There is nothing wrong with getting MMR, especially if you have an outbreak," says Faust.
A sign warns people of measles in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Williamsburg on April 10, 2019 in New York. As the measles epidemic continues to spread, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has recently announced a state of emergency and asked residents of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg to vaccinate against the viral disease. Those who choose not to risk a fine of $ 1,000.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Since the introduction of measles vaccine in the 1960s, the number of measles cases in Israel, as well as in the United States, has been steadily decreasing.
But in recent years, amidst measles outbreaks and an anti-vaccine movement around the world, fueled in part by fraudulent searches meant to demonstrate a link between autism and an agent used in vaccines, the numbers have risen sharply. From March 2018 to January, more than 3,400 people were infected with measles in Israel, said the Ministry of Health.
According to the Times of Israel, the recent epidemic in that country has largely affected the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in the country, where reluctance to vaccinate children has increased.
The United States has also struggled against such epidemics.
According to CDC data, in 2000, nearly four decades after parents began vaccinating their children, measles was declared eliminated.
But CDC data show that from 2000 to 2018, there were an average of 140 measles cases per year in the United States. Three people were killed during this period: one in 2002, one in 2003 and one in 2015.
In the last three months, according to the CDC, 555 cases of measles have been reported in 20 states.
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