Strollerderby
Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss
This heart-wrenching story is made bearable by the courage
of the mother it involves, who has taken her tragedy as a chance to educate others.
Ruth Schofield contacted the herpes simplex virus (HSV) for the first time when
she was in her final term of pregnancy. She was prescribed antibiotics for her
mouth ulcers, which were still present when she gave birth to baby Jennifer.
With no warnings to the contrary, Schofield naturally kissed
and cuddled her newborn baby. Soon after her birth, Jennifer stopped feeding
and seemed overly sleepy, so Schofield readmitted her to the hospital. Jennifer had no cold sores or outward signs of having contracted herpes, but the virus had spread throughout her organs, and she died when she was just a
few weeks old.
Doctors believe that herpes was deadly in this case because Schofield
had never been exposed to the virus until the very end of her pregnancy, so her
body didn
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8 Comments
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWhatever, be careful. STD cases on the rise!
A friend of mine who works for the largest STD dating
== STDslove.c o m == told me that the new subscribers have increased 30% over 2007. Rising STD rate sparks online dating sites.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amAli, “usually” does not mean “always”.
“Most genital herpes is caused by HSV-2, although HSV-1 accounts for about _half_ of new cases in developed countries. The prevalence of herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 2 infections in the general population ranges from 10% to 60%” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18156035)“During initial infection, HSV enters through breaks in the skin or mucosa; it then attaches to and enters epithelial cells and begins replicating. It is taken up by free sensory nerve endings found at the dermis, and the nucleocapsid containing the viral genome is transported by retrograde axonal flow to the nucleus in the sensory ganglion. Skin manifestations include vesicular lesions on an erythematous base. Lesions lead to the focal destruction of the epithelial layer and a widespread infiltrate of inflammatory cells develops in the surrounding rim and in the underlying dermal layer.” (same source) So to speak, it depends on the point of entry.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amActually botanist, the Type 1 is usually the kind on the face and rarely on the genitals. Type 2 is on the genitals. Here is a link. Super easy to get Type 1.
http://www.aad.org/public/publications/pamphlets/viral_herpes_simplex.html
She most likely had Type 1. If she had Type 2 with the stress of pregnancy she would have had a huge outbreak on her genitals and they would have safeguarded the baby including a c-section since it is so dangerous.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 ampointykitty
It’s the same virus. The only difference is the location of the infection and outbreaks.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amit’s Herpes Simplex AKA a fever blister, not a sexually transmitted form, Judgy Judge judge!
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amSuch a horrible, sad story.
I wonder how she contracted herpes so late in her pregnancy… and why are we only hearing about the mother? Know what I mean?
Although I guess the point isn’t to blame here, but to educate…
diera commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI heard a story of someone’s baby dying from herpes back when I was pregnant with my first. In that case it wasn’t the mother’s own infection, it was probably a nurse or other caregiver in the hospital. It was so, so sad.
I was always really paranoid when my own were newborns because I get a lot of cold sores, even though in theory since I’d had the virus for a long time they would have gotten lots of antibodies from me.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI knew you weren’t supposed to get your mouth near a baby when you had a cold sore, yeah. I’ve not heard of a newborn *dying* from exposure to oral HSV before (as opposed to picking up HSV during birth from an active genital outbreak), but primary HSV infections are serious things, and newborns don’t have the level of immune function necessary to deal with HSV exposure. That’s why C-sections are done when a mom has an active genital HSV outbreak at the time of birth. Stands to reason that her docs should have made her aware of the risks involved with oral herpes exposure, the same way they would have managed the birth to avoid exposure if the outbreak was genital.
But I have to ask: What moron prescribed antibiotics for a herpes outbreak? HSV is a viral infection, not a bacterial one. She should have been on Valtrex or one of the other HSV medications if she was having a serious primary outbreak, and she should certainly have been counseled not to kiss her newborn until her mouth sores were healed. WTF?
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