Baby boy left fighting for life after he catches herpes from kiss at his christening

Little Noah almost died after he caught herpes from kiss at his christening, The Sun reported.

Shortly after christening, Noah's mom, 21-year-old Ashleigh Whit, from the English city of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, noticed that the baby, who was only 4 weeks old, had an inflamed right eye. The worried mother immediately suggested that the child had herpes, and turned to doctors for help. The results of the survey, obtained in a few days, confirmed her suspicions.

When doctors told the first-time mum her son had likely caught the virus from a kiss from an infected adult, she realised it must have happened at a christening they'd been at five days earlier.

"He was only four weeks old. We went to a christening where friends were holding and kissing him - it could have been any of them,” she said.

After discharging from hospital, the child was given a prophylactic antiviral agent, but in March 2019 his health deteriorated again. He spent 2 weeks in the intensive care unit, after which he was prescribed medication until March of the following year.

Now the boy is 9 months old. Nothing threatens his life, but he will have to be regularly examined at the hospital for a long time.

Experts urge young parents not to allow other people (even close relatives) to kiss newborn children. The child’s immune system is still weak, and during a kiss, they can become infected with viruses that are not dangerous for an adult, but are deadly for a child.

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