Newborn dies after contracting HSV-1 herpes: father implores parents everywhere to wash hands thoroughly
This sad story comes from the United States, where a father had the courage to face the death of his child and to try to prevent other possible tragedies.
Through a post published on Facebook, this young father talked about some small precautions that we must take when we come into contact with newborn babies.
At the end of the article, you can find the original post with a photo of little Mallory.
via News Hub
Jeff and Natasha are a young American couple who, like many others, discovered that they were expecting a baby girl. This obviously filled their hearts with joy and the possibility of creating their own family and spending a life together made them both enthusiastic. After the birth of their child, these expectations slowly waned in the face of an unexpected tragedy. Little Mallory died, in fact, after only three weeks of life, due to a high fever and an illness contracted during the first week after her birth.
The pain and despair of the two parents was and is still enormous, the illness that took away their child acted quickly and did not leave the time necessary for the doctors to intervene. Jeff and Natasha's pain also turned into anger when they learned what had killed little Mallory.
In a post published on Facebook, after about a month of painful silence on the part of the two parents, the father Jeff Gober, decided to tell everyone what happened to their child; what killed her and what care should be taken by anyone who has just had a baby. In the post, the man clearly devastated by the incident, warns future parents, about a fact that very often is neglected, namely, the importance of washing our hands.
A newborn child has a very weak immune system, therefore, it is enough that a pathology that we are carriers of but of which we do not show any symptoms, such as herpes, to infect and make a newborn baby sick. And it was the HSV-1 virus that killed Mallory, a very common form of cold sores, of which 67% of the world's population is affected, but not all of them show its symptoms. For a child only three weeks old, it can be lethal, but how could Mallory have contracted this kind of virus?
Usually, these diseases are transmitted through kisses, but this was not the case of this newborn baby. In fact, Mallory certainly contracted the virus through her hands that she could not keep out of her mouth, but it was also transmitted to her through someone else's hands. For this reason, this father emphasizes the need to always wash our hands multiple times, before coming into contact with a child, especially a newborn baby. It is essential to do this before picking up a child, or before touching their little hands because what is harmless for us could be lethal to a baby.
Here below is the original post of the frank and courageous father, who wanted to publish this post to warn future fathers and mothers, about the importance of cleanliness and the diligence with which it must be maintained. We hope this initiative can ward off other infant deaths due to the same problem.
