TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The death of an EVA Air flight attendant is now under investigation, with Adult-onset Still’s Disease (AOSD) suspected as the cause.
The 34-year-old woman, surnamed Sun (孫), fell ill during a flight from Milan and sought medical treatment upon arrival in Taoyuan on Sept. 25, per SET News. She was first treated at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou before being transferred to China Medical University Hospital in Taichung, where she died on Oct. 10.
When her cabin chief checked in on her on Sept. 25, she reportedly said that she had received an injection at Taoyuan Airport for pain and fever, before being referred to a hospital rheumatology department, per ETtoday. Sun said that doctors suspected that she had the rare autoimmune condition AOSD.
She said that she was taking medications and mentioned the possibility of being sent to the emergency room and undergoing extended hospitalization. On Oct. 1, Sun said that she was still undergoing tests.
On Oct. 10, Sun's condition deteriorated, and the cabin chief asked about visiting Sun, and her family said that she was in intensive care. Her family said she had been unconscious for days.
Chen I-hsing (陳怡行), deputy director of the Rheumatology and Immunology Center at China Medical University Hospital, told ETtoday that AOSD is a systemic inflammatory autoimmune disorder. Its exact cause is still unknown, and it occurs in roughly 1 in 100,000 people worldwide.
Chen said that in severe cases, it can lead to pericarditis, pneumonia, or the potentially fatal macrophage activation syndrome, which carries a very high mortality rate.
Tsai Chao-chi (蔡肇基), consultant physician in Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology at Asia University Hospital in Taichung, told ETtoday that AOSD has two main age peaks. The first peak occurs in young adults aged 15–25, while the second affects middle-aged adults aged 36–46.
He added that AOSD is particularly challenging because its symptoms are easily confused with other common illnesses. Clinically, patients often experience intermittent high fevers lasting more than a week, salmon-colored rashes, severe sore throat, joint pain, and swollen lymph nodes.
Tsai urged anyone noticing the three key symptoms, recurrent daily fever, unexplained red rashes, and inflamed, painful joints, that persist without improvement, to seek evaluation at an immunology or rheumatology department.
