Newborn dies after contracting virus from kiss, parents say

July 19 (UPI) -- A newborn baby died after contracting viral meningitis from a kiss, her parents said.

"Our princess Mariana Reese Sifrit gained her angel wings ... in her daddy's arms and her mommy right beside her," Nicole Sifrit wrote on Facebook Tuesday. "She is now no longer suffering and is with the Lord."

Mariana was born July 1 in Des Moines, Iowa. One week later -- on her parents' wedding day -- the couple brought the baby back to the hospital due to an illness, reported the Des Moines Register.

Mariana was diagnosed with a herpes simplex virus and her parents believe the cause was a kiss from a friend or relative who had the Meningitus HSV1 virus.

"Don't let anyone kiss your baby," Nicole wrote on Facebook after taking her baby back to the hospital. "Our princess is fighting for her life on life support after being discharged 100 percent healthy (when she was born). This has to be the worse nightmare I've ever lived."

Nicole's newborn baby soon began experiencing organ failure.

"It immediately went downhill from there," Nicole told WHO-TV.

During her week-long fight in the hospital, Mariana experienced internal bleeding and heart and brain failure before she died.

"I always thought this stuff happens and it's a shame and never thought it would happen to me. I was not prepared at all," said Mariana's father, Shane Sifrit.

"Keep your babies isolated. Don't let just anyone come visit them," Nicole added. "Make sure they are constantly washing their hands. Don't let people kiss your baby and make sure they ask before they pick up your baby."

HSV ailments are extremely common. According to the World Health Organization, 67 percent of the world's population has some form of the ailment, including nearly 50 percent of the U.S. population.

However, infant deaths due to contraction of HSV are extremely rare. According to a study that looked at 33 years of data from babies born in New York City, researchers found 34 recorded infant deaths from HSV.

In 2015, a British mother's newborn baby, Brooke, died after contracting HSV via a kiss from a person who didn't know they were infected.

"Avoid direct contact with baby if the visiting person or parent has a fever blister (cold sore = herpes) outbreak," Dr. Harvey M. Friedman, professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in an email to CBS News. "In the case with Brooke, the contact person did not know they were having an outbreak of herpes. In that case, there is virtually no way to prevent this rare event from happening."