One-Week-Old Baby Aliza Rose Friend Dies Of Herpes Contracted From A Kiss

Baby Aliza Rose Friend was a little over 2-days-old her health began dropping quickly.

The baby girl did not want to eat, became lethargic, and spiked a fever, the Sun reported. There was so much fluid in the baby girl’s lungs that her mother says she could see the veins in her infant’s chest. A few days later, the baby girl died.

Doctors said it was likely the result of a kiss, one that gave the baby girl a fatal case of neonatal herpes. As the Sun reported, doctors said the case is so incredibly rare that they often don’t even warn parents about it, but in the infection that Aliza Rose Friend contracted was so severe that it spread to her brain, leaving her brain dead.

The baby’s mother, Abigail, said she wants others to know about the dangers of neonatal herpes and warns them to wash hands and not kiss newborn infants.

“I hope that her story can bring awareness to people to not kiss babies and to wash your hands,” she told the Sun. “You don’t want something like this to happen. It’s awful. I just want people to become aware that this is a very real threat to children. I’m going to do everything I can to bring awareness to this disease for the rest of my life.”

In Aliza’s case, she had to be placed on a heavy dose of medication to treat the disease, leaving her with seizures that eventually led to her being placed on a dialysis machine. Doctors initially had hope, telling Abigail that there was real hope the baby would beat the infection. But just one day after that, Abigail was told that her newborn daughter was brain dead.

Abigail said she was by her baby girl’s side for the entire terrifying ordeal, singing her “You Are My Sunshine” as she passed away.

As a study in American Family Physician noted, neonatal herpes is usually transmitted from an infected mother during delivery and occurs in approximately one per 3,000 to 20,000 live births. A woman with an active episode of genital herpes has a 33 percent chance of transmitting it to an infant, while a secondary reactivation has a 3 percent chance of transmitting it to her infant.

But in the case of baby Aliza Rose Friend, doctors believe she may have contracted herpes from contact with an infected person after birth, likely from a kiss or some other touch.