By Kara Stephens

Memorial Day weekend last year, I was changing my daughter, Kinsey, when I noticed a blister on her finger and a few red marks near her diaper line and on her knees.  I really didn’t worry too much about it at first, thinking it may have been some sort of mild allergic reaction or bug bites from playing outside all day.  Later that afternoon, she took a drink from her sippy cup and began to cry as she shoved her hands into her mouth, desperately trying to figure out what was causing the pain.  Thinking it was just the budding of new baby teeth I went and got some Orajel from the medicine cabinet. Only when I went to apply it I noticed the pain wasn’t caused by her teeth, but several blisters that had formed on the back of her throat and tongue.   At this moment I knew something was wrong and all of my epidemiology and infectious disease coursework came flooding back to me.