An unvaccinated infant infected with measles virus lost consciousness Thursday at his home in the Meah She'arim neighborhood of Jerusalem, and was declared dead shortly afterwards.
United Hatzalah teams arriving at the scene began performing CPR and evacuated the infant, aged approximately 1.5 years, to Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center in critical condition, while continuing attempts to resuscitate him.
However, they were unsuccessful and hospital staff were forced to declare the infant's death.
The infant's death marks the fifth such death in Israel since the measles outbreak began earlier this year. It is estimated that there is approximately one death per 1,000 measles cases in developed countries, thus indicating spread of around 5,000 cases, though the official, known, numbers are much lower.
During the course of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) a 13-month-old girl died of measles following a two-month effort by medical staff to save her life. She had been vaccinated according to the recommended schedule but was still too young for the measles (MMR) vaccine when she contracted measles at age 11 months.
On Monday, the Health Ministry reported that an unvaccinated 16-month-old boy died of measles over the weekend.