Baby died from mother's cold sore virus 'after she was told by medics her ulcers were just hormonal'

A mother whose baby daughter died from the cold sore virus said medics reassured her that the painful sores in her own mouth were ‘just hormones’.

Meg Edmonds, 22, developed ulcers on her lips and mouth on the day she gave birth to Magnolia in February.

She asked health professionals whether they were cold sores but was told the cause was ‘hormonal’ or that she needed to drink more. 

Ten days later, Magnolia, who was known as Maggie, died in intensive care from disseminated neonatal herpes caused by HSV-1, the herpes simplex virus that leads to cold sores.

Ms Edmonds believes she passed the virus to her daughter, whom she continued to breastfeed as the baby’s condition worsened.

‘The virus came from me, which is so devastatingly hard to live with,’ she said. ‘No one in our family or friends knew a cold sore could kill a baby.

‘I didn’t even know cold sores were caused by the herpes virus until after she died.’

Maggie, who was born on February 1, was alert and fed well for her first two days, but by the third she was sleepy and was not waking for feeds.

Over a week she developed breathing difficulties, a weak, high-pitched cry, a rash on her chest and a sore eye. She also turned grey and cold.

Ms Edmonds and her partner Ben Brookes, 27, say that on home visits and at hospital, they were told her symptoms were down to breastfeeding problems, weight loss and jaundice.

Ms Edmonds, who has another daughter called Cordelia, two and a half, said: ‘My mouth was full of ulcers, my lips were swollen and it was painful to eat or drink.’ 

When the sores spread to her nipples and breastfeeding became too painful, she continued to express milk for Maggie after being advised that it would lessen her daughter’s lethargy.

Having researched the virus, Ms Edmonds now believes it may have passed accidentally from her mouth to her nipple, which would explain the sores and extreme pain she felt there – and that Maggie then caught it through contact while feeding.

HSV-1 is spread by direct contact with sores or infected saliva rather than through breast milk. 

By the time Maggie reached the paediatric intensive care unit at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the virus had spread through her body, causing multiple organs to fail. Her parents cuddled her as she died on February 11 after going into cardiac arrest.

Tests confirmed she had HSV-1. But Ms Edmonds, from Rugeley, Staffordshire, said she was only told on the day Maggie died that her own sores had probably been a primary HSV infection, the first time she had caught the virus, when it is at its most contagious.

She has never been formally diagnosed. ‘I don’t even know how I contracted it, as no one around me had cold sores,’ she said. ‘That’s what’s so dangerous about it. It can be anywhere.’

Around two in three people under 50 carry HSV-1, according to the World Health Organisation. In adults it usually causes nothing worse than cold sores, but newborns have little defence.

Neonatal herpes affects about six in every 100,000 babies in the UK and Ireland, a British Paediatric Surveillance Unit study found. Almost a quarter of infected babies died, rising to two thirds of those with the disseminated form.

Last year, a National Child Mortality Database review of 35 infant deaths linked to HSV called for parents to be warned about cold sores in pregnancy.

Maggie’s parents are backing Infection Prevention Week, a campaign by The Lullaby Trust baby charity that starts today. Its poll of 1,001 parents found 57 per cent had a relative kiss their baby without asking, while 46 per cent felt uncomfortable asking loved ones to wash their hands.

Ms Edmonds said: ‘Newborns have immature immune systems. Setting boundaries when it comes to touching and kissing is a must. It could save your baby’s life.’

Jenny Ward, chief executive of The Lullaby Trust, said: ‘Protecting your baby from infection is never something you need to justify. You are not being rude or over-protective.’

• Ms Edmonds is supporting The Lullaby Trust's Infection Prevention Week. For more information click here.