Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

re: Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

stdgirl — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:59:48 GMT

Whatever, 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.

re: Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

botanist — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:12:06 GMT

Ali, "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%" (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../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.

re: Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

Ali — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:05:33 GMT

Actually 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.

www.aad.org/.../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.

re: Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

botanist — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:05:49 GMT

pointykitty

It's the same virus. The only difference is the location of the infection and outbreaks.

re: Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

pointykitty — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:46:14 GMT

it's Herpes Simplex AKA a fever blister, not a sexually transmitted form, Judgy Judge judge!

re: Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

BF — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:12:08 GMT

Such 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...

re: Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

diera — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:55:49 GMT

I 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.

re: Mother with Herpes Unwittingly Kills Baby with a Kiss

Lula — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:24:36 GMT

I 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?