Israeli flight attendant dies from measles

The stewardess caught the disease in April

An Israeli air flight attendant who fell ill with measles on an El Al flight from New York to Israel has died, Israeli media say.

The 43-year-old woman became unwell on the flight in April. It is unclear where she contracted the disease.

It is the third death from measles in Israel since November, after none there for 15 years, reports say.

Measles is one of the world's most infectious illnesses but until recently cases had been declining.

The stewardess, who has not been named, suffered brain damage due to complications from the virus and had been in an induced coma, according to media reports.

The airline issued a statement, saying it was "bowing its head over the death of a member of a member of El Al's air crew", the Jewish Press reported.

The latest fatality comes after an 18-month-old toddler and an 82-year-old woman died from the disease in Jerusalem at the end of last year.

In recent decades, successful vaccination programmes have ensured measles has become rare in many places.

But there has been a rise in the number of cases of measles around the world in the past few years.

In the US, there has been a resurgence after disease was declared eliminated there in 2000, while in Europe the number of cases have tripled since 2017.