recalls<\/a> Holly, a single mother who runs a PR agency.<\/p>\nViolet was admitted while they waited for the results: that night, the only suggestion that something might be wrong was a slightly elevated white blood cell count \u2013 indicative of an infection \u2013 \u2018I just thought she had a virus,\u2019 recalls Holly.<\/p>\n
But the following morning, results showed that Violet had encephalitis, inflammation in the brain that, left untreated, can lead to serious neurological problems and can be life-threatening.<\/p>\n
![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/100800977-14958433-image-a-26_1753958070230.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Holly Stevens with her baby Violet, who is five months old, and her son Freddy, aged six<\/p>\n
![\"Violet\u00bfs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/100800979-14958433-image-a-27_1753958074620.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Violet\u2019s condition, which affects around two in 100,000 babies every year, was caused by HSV-1, or herpes simplex virus type 1, which causes cold sores<\/p>\n
The doctors immediately started her on intravenous antiviral medication.<\/p>\n
\u2018We spent a month in hospital and every day it felt like there was something else \u2013 \u201cOh, she needs to go see a specialist at Moorfields Eye Hospital today\u201d [to check her sight had not been affected] or there was an MRI [to see if the inflammation had resulted in any abnormalities in the brain]; an EEG [to check brain activity]; a hearing test that took three hours and was then \u201cinconclusive\u201d. \u201cDoes that mean she\u2019s deaf?\u201d I asked. \u201cMaybe. Maybe not.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
Compounding Holly\u2019s stress was the fact that Violet needed intravenous medication three times a day, but the lines into her tiny veins constantly got blocked and getting another line in was always tricky, because her blood vessels were so small.<\/p>\n
\u2018In the early hours of one morning, one doctor took two hours trying nine different places, because they told me she couldn\u2019t miss a dose,\u2019 says Holly.<\/p>\n
\u2018It was horrendous. She was clearly so distressed and had bruises all over her from where they\u2019d tried to get the line in.<\/p>\n
\u2018She\u2019d been through so much already and just seeing her lying there crying as they tried to get yet another line in was devastating. I remember talking to my mum on the phone at 4am in tears, terrified that if she missed a dose, she\u2019d have a relapse.\u2019<\/p>\n
And yet all this was completely avoidable \u2013 because Violet\u2019s condition, which affects around two in 100,000 babies every year, was caused by HSV-1, or herpes simplex virus type 1, which causes cold sores.<\/p>\n
\u2018As soon as the doctor explained the cause, my heart sank,\u2019 recalls Holly. \u2018I knew exactly what had happened.\u2019<\/p>\n
A week earlier, one of Holly\u2019s friends had come to meet Violet.<\/p>\n
\u2018She\u2019d told me before she came that she had a cold sore and asked if I minded, but I said it was fine,\u2019 recalls Holly.<\/p>\n
\u2018I figured that she wasn\u2019t going to be kissing Violet or changing her nappy so wasn\u2019t going to be in contact with her skin \u2013 so it wasn\u2019t an issue.\u2019<\/p>\n
What Holly didn\u2019t realise was that even without direct skin-to-skin contact with the cold sore, the herpes simplex virus can easily be transmitted to young babies \u2013 with potentially devastating effects.<\/p>\n
\u2018Newborn babies who haven\u2019t yet built up an immune system are particularly vulnerable to all viral infections,\u2019 explains Dr Anup Kage, a neonatal consultant at the Royal London Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u2018When someone has a cold sore, if they kiss the baby, or touch their face and then touch the baby, there\u2019s a high chance that the baby can catch the infection, but when they\u2019re at their most infectious, even if there\u2019s no contact, the virus can shed onto the baby or into the environment around the baby, and eventually come into contact with them.\u2019<\/p>\n
Babies remain vulnerable until around one year old and, once infected with the virus, it can affect them in various ways.<\/p>\n
\u2018Sometimes it can be quite localised \u2013 just around the mouth and the skin causing sores,\u2019 says Dr Kage.<\/p>\n
\u2018They might be lethargic, not feeding well, not breathing well, irritable. They can sometimes have fluctuations in temperature or rashes.\u2019<\/p>\n
Signs can be \u2018very subtle\u2019 in babies, he adds \u2013 yet if not detected early the virus can invade organs such as the liver, causing symptoms such as jaundice; or the lungs, where it might present as problems with breathing.<\/p>\n
In severe cases, the virus spreads via the bloodstream to the brain where it can lead to encephalitis.<\/p>\n
If not treated promptly, HSV-1 is associated with a high-risk of death or long-term neurological complications, arising from permanent damage to brain tissue \u2013 \u2018motor skills, cognitive function, hearing, sight, speech and language can all be affected\u2019, says Dr Kage.<\/p>\n
Between 4 and 14 per cent of babies with HSV-1 encephalitis die as a result, while 56 to 69 per cent have long-term neurological problems, according to some estimates.<\/p>\n
Normally doctors give babies with symptoms of an infection a broad-spectrum antibiotic used to treat a wide range of bacterial infections, pending the outcome of blood tests to identify the exact cause.<\/p>\n
But such antibiotics are not effective against HSV, as it\u2019s caused by a virus.<\/p>\n
Skin swabs, urine samples and a lumbar puncture may all be needed to diagnose HSV-1, says Dr Kage, adding that parents\u2019 accounts of whether the baby has been in contact with someone with cold sores can also be invaluable.<\/p>\n
The risks of HSV has led organisations including Bliss, a charity for parents of premature or sick babies, to campaign for health professionals to consider herpes as a possibility for all unwell babies in order to treat them quickly.<\/p>\n
Following the diagnosis, babies are treated with the antiviral drug acyclovir \u2013 a standard treatment for cold sores, but here, it\u2019s delivered intravenously three times a day for three weeks, depending on the severity of the infection.<\/p>\n
\u2018If the child is very ill they may also need support with breathing, blood pressure medicines and so on,\u2019 says Dr Kage.<\/p>\n
After three weeks of treatment Violet was well enough to be discharged home.<\/p>\n
She is now on oral antivirals three times a day and will continue to take them for up to 12 months.<\/p>\n
But the virus will be in her body for the rest of her life. (An estimated 70 per cent of the UK population carry HSV-1, but only around one in three who catch the virus will have any symptoms.)<\/p>\n
Now five months old, Violet is a happy little girl who appears to be developing normally.<\/p>\n
\u2018My friend who passed on the virus is a nurse and she had no idea that something like this could happen,\u2019 says Holly.<\/p>\n
\u2018If even people who work within medicine don\u2019t know about this what hope is there for the rest of us? That\u2019s why I want to raise awareness by telling our story.\u2019<\/p>\n
Dr Kage agrees that parents should be made aware of the potential risks of babies coming into contact with someone who has a cold sore, both so they can limit the likelihood of this happening and, if it does, they can share the information with midwives, health visitors and GPs.<\/p>\n
\u2018The NHS, medics and clinicians should come together to raise more awareness,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n
Holly would like to see posters in maternity wards and GP surgeries that flag that anyone with a cold sore should be wary of being around small babies. And says that warnings on the packs of medication \u2013 such as Zovirax \u2013 used by cold sore sufferers would also help.<\/p>\n
\u2018Anything that means that another family doesn\u2019t have to go through what we went through,\u2019 says Holly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two weeks after a straightforward birth by planned caesarean, baby Violet Stevens became ill. \u2018One day she vomited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[97,59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-36186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}