Now if you're in health care you've probably gone through all kinds of basic science training

and during that time you learned a ton of diseases and microbiology and a lot of things that sounded the same.

When I was studying for my first exam, which was called the U.S. Emily Step 1, I remember

waking up in the middle of the night and trying to remember the differences between the

peridine and morphine and other different medications that started with the letter M.

Obviously I was dealing with some anxiety about the test, but so many things sound the same.

So much so that our electronic medical records have warnings to make sure we're ordering

the right medications.

And so I noticed this week that I had some patients with some conditions that they thought

was one thing, but it turned out to be another.

And those all have to do with some dermatologic conditions

known as herpetic witelow, her bandgina, and hand foot mouth disease.

These three conditions get mixed up a lot by people.

They all kind of sound the same because they have the same letter H, but let's go through

them so that when your patients present with them, you can help alleviate some of their

anxieties and help them understand what's going on.

I'm Dr. Nikit San Paul, your friendly neighborhood internist and gastrantroologist,

and we're basically going to be doing it like Sesame Street.

This week's letter, the letter H. Now our first condition this week is a skin condition known as herphetic whittelow and it's a viral infection and yes, the herpetic term is accurate because it's caused

by herpes one or two.

Now it actually affects young children very commonly under the age of 10 and then of course adults who may have come in

contact with those children who are in their 20s 30s and 40s. Herphetic

...