‘Stop kissing babies!’ Mother’s warning after 12-day-old daughter dies after catching coldsore virus

"I lost our only little girl."

A mother has shared a stark warning following the death of her 12-day-old daughter. Baby Emerson was barely one-week-old when she contracted the Herpes Simplex (HSV-1) Virus - more commonly known as the coldsore virus. Her mother, Presley, said that the illness was passed onto her daughter through the "kiss of death." Kisses are not dangerous for adults, she explained, but for newborns babies who have extremely low immune systems, they can be fatal. In an emotive Facebook, the grieving mother wrote that people needed to "stop kissing babies that are not yours!"

"Everyone needs to know about this virus and what it does to children and their families! "PEOPLE!!!! STOP KISSING BABIES THAT ARE NOT YOURS!!!!! WAS YOUR HANDS WHEN YOU ARE AROUND NEWBORNS!!!!! I have seen stories about other infants passing from this same virus but you never think it’s going to happen to you. "Well this time, it did."

Presley explained that the HSV-1 virus can be present in humans without symptoms like coldsores, meaning that anybody could carry it without even knowing. "You don’t have to have an active cold sore to pass it on," she said. "You shed the virus in your saliva and when it gets on the baby it goes through the body so fast." Presley said that in her daughter's case, her liver failed first, followed by her kidneys. Then, Emerson started to have seizures before she died. She wrote:

"My daughter, my own flesh and blood who I created out of love, was on life support and I had to be the one to pull the plug on her life. "A mother should never ever have to burry their child. The virus took her at just 12 days old and we watched her die a very slow death. And now I have a lifetime without her."

Presley said she decided to post many photos of baby Emerson so people could see the pain the virus causes. She said that she was going to live the rest of her life thinking "what if." "These babies don’t deserve it," she wrote. "Emerson didn’t deserve it." Images via Presley Trejo.