Dad’s heartbreaking note as baby girl passes away after contracting herpes

A dad has shared a heartbreaking note following the death of his baby girl.

Mallory Gober was three-weeks-old when she passed away in Phoenix, Arizona after contracting herpes. The infant's father, Jeff, shared a touching message some months back, detailing the circumstances of his daughter's death. He wrote:

"I’ve been pretty silent since Mallory’s death. "It’s taken me over a month now to write this, but if any good can come from her passing and prevent someone else from experiencing the heartache, then I would be remiss not to make an effort."

Jeff said that Mallory contracted the HSV-1 infection when she was just one week old and that because she couldn't keep her hands away from her mouth or eyes, the virus must have attached there. The dad said that he was forced to watch his daughter "die slowly for nearly two weeks." He urged other parents, or anyone coming in contact with a newborn baby, to always wash their hands.

"If you have a new baby, or will be around a new baby, wash your hands. A lot. "If anyone wants to hold your baby, make sure they wash their hands first. Then make them do it again."

Jeff wrote that no one with a cold sore came into contact with his daughter. Nor did anyone kiss her on the lips at any point. He said that his baby was simply "an unlucky statistic." "She had no symptoms beyond a high fever for most of the first week, and by the time blisters showed up it was probably too late for the antivirals to be effective," he said.

"Considering that more than half the world has the cold sore virus, we don’t understand why so few infants die from the disease or why our beautiful daughter Mallory was the unlucky statistic, but that’s the way the world works I suppose."

The HSV-1 infection is extremely common with the World Health Organization estimating that 67 percent of all humans are infected.