Cold-sore virus ledto deathof baby

AN eight-day-old baby died after picking up the cold-sore virus at a Yorkshire hospital, an inquest was told yesterday.

Amy Irving had an “extraordinary rapid demise” after contracting herpes simplex type 1 at the Jessop Wing of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.

It spread to all her organs overnight and she caught bacterial pneumonia which led to her death within hours the next day.

A doctor told a Sheffield inquest he believed the herpes virus probably came from staff or visitors to the baby but not from the mother Katy Weston, 26, of Halfway, Sheffield.

The premature baby, who was born at 34 weeks, was seen by consultant neo-natalogist Kirsty Mackay on a transitory care unit just a day before she died after the child had been vomiting. She found the baby “pink” with normal movement and no signs of distress but within 24 hours Amy, born on August 31 last year, was dead.

A pathologist gave the cause of death as disseminated herpes simplex type 1 and bacterial pneumonia contributed to by the baby’s prematurity.

The baby was seen by a registrar on September 6 who noticed secretions from the baby’s mouth and nose and suspected oesophagal reflux so put the child on new drugs.

The following day Amy was reviewed by a junior doctor and then Dr Mackay but nothing untoward was found.

But at 10.30pm that evening Amy’s condition worsened. After she stopped breathing three times she was rushed to the high dependency unit.

Dr Mackay said she had thought about the case repeatedly and she would not have done anything differently.

The hearing continues.