A mother has issued a warning to parents after her toddler lost his sight after contracting herpes in the eye.
Michelle Saaiman’s two-year-old son, Juwan, lost vision in the eye after he was kissed by an acquaintance, which transferred the virus to his eyeball.
A herpes cold sore started growing in his eye following the peck, which health experts think must have happened on or around the area.
Then, complications from the infection meant Juwan almost lost his eye entirely and he is now awaiting a complex operation to save it.
It all began in August 2024, when the then 16-month-old suddenly developed what seemed like an eye infection, however, antibiotic drops weren’t clearing it up.
After it got worse, Michelle was shocked to hear that her Juwan had been diagnosed with herpes simplex virus (HSV) in his eye.
As both parents both tested negative for the virus, it became apparent that it must have been transferred via a kiss.
The 36-year-old mum, from Namibia, told Metro: “The doctor was telling me there’s a fever blister growing in my child’s cornea.
“I was literally looking at the doctor wondering whether it’s April 1, because I thought it was an April Fool’s joke.”
She added that she’d ‘never in her life heard of a fever blister growing on someone’s cornea’.
However, once the family got the diagnosis, the initial medication didn’t have the desired effect and Juwan’s parents struggled to get the virus under control for weeks.
Michelle said: “‘By that time the herpes just caused so much damage to his cornea that he essentially just lost all feeling in the eye and he could not see anything. He was completely blind.
“It meant the brain did not recognise the eye anymore and stopped sending signals to the eye. The gel later protecting the eye evaporated and the eye dried out.”
Due to this, Juwan’s eye started to ‘melt away’ and a four millimetre hole appeared, meaning he’s now battling constant eye infections where the open hole was.
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According to the publication, doctors have also warned that he was at risk of losing his eye completely.
In March 2025, it was reported that the family were awaiting an operation in South Africa to transfer nerves from his leg to his eye socket, which would hopefully restore the connection between the eyeball and the brain.
If the nerve transfer worked, this would make Juwan eligible for a cornea transplant, which could then restore his vision.
She explained that whether Juwan’s vision can ever fully be restored is unknown at this stage, however, the couple have ‘made peace with the fact that he could very well be permanently blind in his left eye’.
The mother-of-three wrote on Facebook: “I feel it necessary to make people understand why you should not kiss someone’s baby.”
Michelle quipped: “This is something that I’ve read a thousand times, but we’ve never really been too bothered about it – I mean, what’s the worst that can happen, right? Wrong. I was so wrong.
“The moral of the story is don’t let anyone kiss your baby. Such a silly virus caused so much trauma and damage, it’s just not worth it.”
In the Metro interview, Michelle admitted that initially, she and her husband were ‘really, really angry’.
She told the publication: “Both my husband and myself, we were just angry with whoever was so selfish to kiss my child in his face with an active fever blister.”
However, she reasoned: “Kisses come from a place of love. So whoever gave him this, I’m sure it wasn’t done intentionally or not with any idea to do him harm.”
Juwan’s parents needed to take time off work to travel with the little one to specialists in South Africa for the important operation, so a fundraiser was set up to help cover their costs.
