Born Sick

About 10 in 100,000 babies worldwide are born with herpes, according to the first-ever estimate of the global burden of neonatal herpes infection.
 
An international team of researchers used prevalence and incidence data among 15- to 49-year-old women and 2010-2015 birth rates to estimate infections during pregnancy. They then explored the risks of herpes transmission during pregnancy to generate annual numbers for Africa, Europe, the Western Pacific and the Americas.
 
Most of the estimated 14,000 annual cases of neonatal herpes were in Africa, though the Americas had the highest overall rate of infection. Though the disease is rare, 6 in 10 children who have it die without treatment.
 
Source: The Lancet Global Health