The parents of baby Elijah Edwards were told that they had lost their son to an infection so rare he would be the only one in the country to die from it for years. But just over a year after his death, Joann and Christian Edwards from Mountain Ash found out that Elijah is not the only Welsh baby to have died with the infection, and that multiple other babies in Wales had been fighting the rare condition.
Earlier this month, Public Health Wales announced it was investigating a cluster of infections of enterovirus that had led to myocarditis (inflammation of the heart). Enterovirus is a common childhood infection which can cause a range of symptoms. It rarely affects the heart, however, in very young babies, enterovirus can cause severe illness in the first few weeks of life.
PHW is investigating 10 cases of enterovirus with myocarditis that occurred in Wales between June 2022 and November 2022. One of these babies sadly died.
