A grieving mother is urging other parents to learn about the dangers cold sores can pose to babies after her newborn daughter died from a herpes virus infection. Meg Edmonds' daughter Magnolia, known as Maggie, died in February at just 10 days old from disseminated neonatal herpes, which caused multiple organs to fail.
Mother's infection and baby's symptoms
On the day she gave birth, Meg developed ulcers on her lips and mouth. She sought advice and questioned whether she had a cold sore, but was told not to worry by her midwives and pharmacists. Maggie was "perfectly healthy" when she was born and fed well for the first few days. By the third day, she had become sleepy, and over the following days developed breathing difficulties, a weak, high-pitched cry, a rash across her chest, and a sore eye.
She then became grey and cold to the touch. Meg said her symptoms were put down to breastfeeding complications, jaundice, and weight loss, and Maggie was taken to the paediatric intensive care unit at Birmingham Children's Hospital. By then, the virus had spread through her body, causing multiple organs to fail. She went into cardiac arrest the night before she died on February 11. Blood tests confirmed the herpes simplex virus (HSV).
Family's ordeal and diagnosis
The day after Maggie died, Meg's other child Cordelia was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with a primary HSV infection. Meg said it was only on the day Maggie died she was told her own sores had probably been a primary HSV infection—the first time she had caught the virus. She had not been formally diagnosed.
Meg believes her infection may have been passed to her daughter. She said: "It was caused by HSV-1 that had come from a cold sore. The virus came from me which is so devastatingly hard to now live with the fact." She added: "I don't even know how I contracted the virus as no one around me had cold sores at the time, but that's what's so dangerous about it, it can be anywhere."
Awareness campaign and lasting grief
Meg and her partner Ben shared their daughter's story with The Lullaby Trust for Infection Prevention Week to increase awareness of the dangers cold sores can pose to babies. Meg said: "All I can do now is make sure other families aren't in the same position I am, in Maggie's memory. Our family are heartbroken but we are doing what we can to raise awareness. Everyone's heard of herpes, but there's such a stigma attached to it. Most people have only heard of it as the STD. Unless you're specifically told that a cold sore is the herpes virus, it's not very intuitive."
Since losing Maggie, another cold sore outbreak has brought back painful memories, with the sores becoming a visible reminder of the daughter she lost. Meg said: "I'm now going to get them for the rest of my life, however regular that might be. It's horrible. I was really dreading it because I'm constantly reminded anyway that my daughter isn't here any more and why that is, but to actually have a physical reminder on my face is horrible."
