A mother has shared arather unnerving storyon Facebook that ’s subsequently gone viral . One Lucy Kendall tells the tale of her boy , Oliver Jaz Miller , born at the starting of August . She explains that , 11 days post - birth , he stopped drink Milk River , got a temperature , and was soon hotfoot to hospital .

in the end , the baby fought for his life in a High Dependency Unit , and was diagnosed with neonatal herpes . After 21 days in the hospital , Oliver was brought home and given a 6 - calendar month grade of antibiotics . Naturally , Kendall believe herself and her family to be extremely lucky .

This is n’t the first time such a story has been shared . In 2017 , sores apace proliferated acrossJuliano , a baby from Des Moines in Iowa , and the very same diagnosing was made . Luckily , the baby outlive in this slip too .

Neonatal herpes virus , per the UK ’s National Health Service ( NHS ) , is a form of herpes virus infection in a newborn child . It ’s due to theherpes simplex virus , either character 1 or 2 . It ’s the very same virus that produce cold sores and genital sores , and currently has no cure . It remains in a mortal ’s system , often silently and asymptomatically , for their intact life . For adults , the virus can be unsightly and uncomfortable but seldom dangerous .

Babies can contract it in a change of ways . If the mother develop genital herpes virus for the first time towards the closing of pregnancy , say within the last six weeks , the child can become infected if it ’s deliver vaginally . If the mother has herpes virus sores on her breasts and she engages in breastfeeding , this can pass on the computer virus too .

What look to have fall out in these two taradiddle , however , is someone with a cold sore kiss the babe , inadvertently infecting it . That ’s why , if you have a cold sore or you ’re prone to getting them , you should keep your space around newborns . Wash your hands too before coming into link with them , if you must , and in spades do n’t osculate them .

Herpes is not exactly a pleasant matter to get as an adult , no matter what kind it takes , but it can be specially dangerous in a immature baby , as the two aforementioned cases grimly show . Their developing resistant system of rules simply ca n’t plow it .

The symptoms can variegate , but you should phone a clinical practitioner immediately if your babe appear to be very irritable , lethargic , is n’t hungry at all , has a fever , and has a efflorescence or sores on the oculus , skin , or oral fissure . Phone an ambulance right on off if this develops into unresponsiveness , speedy external respiration , your infant ca n’t seem to heat easy from slumbering ,   or it develops a blueish - ting knife or pelt .

If you ’re golden , herpes virus will only affect the skin , eyes , or mouth , due to lesions make during birth . In this case , antiviral discussion commonly does the trick ; untreated , it can conduct to blindness .

If , however , it ’s spreading through the infant ’s intimate organs , known asdisseminated herpes virus , it ’s life-time - forbidding . The sister can also get central nervous system herpes , which leads to the self - death of nerve cells and tenacious - term negative conditions .

Neonatal herpes virus require to be treated now , but even if it does , around a third of babies still perish . Such was the case with Mariana ReeseSifrit . Also born in Iowa in 2017 , she died after developingmeningitistriggered by a herpes infection from cold-blooded afflictive contact .

Without treatment , there ’s a 60 percent chance the baby will buy the farm , consort to a recent World Health Organization - funded review inThe Lancet .

Cold sore cases are rare . In fact , transmission system is normally through the vaginal birth method acting . Either way , the more educated everyone is , the less likely child will be threaten by this computer virus .