Treatment usually involves antibiotics and cleaning of the infected area. However, some staph infections no longer respond, or become resistant, to common antibiotics. To treat antibiotic-resistant staph infections, health care providers may need to use antibiotics that can cause more side effects.
Most cases of staph infection on the skin can be treated with a topical antibiotic (applied to your skin). Your healthcare provider may also drain a boil or abscess by making a small incision (cut) to let the pus out.
Recurrent infections occur in nearly half of all patients with S. aureus SSTI. Epidemiologic and environmental factors, such as exposure to health care, age, household contacts with S. aureus SSTI, and contaminated household fomites are associated with recurrence.
Most small staph skin infections can be treated at home: Soak the affected area in warm water or apply warm, moist washcloths. Use a cloth or towel only once when you soak or clean an area of infected skin. Then, wash them in soap and hot water and dry them fully in a clothes dryer.
When common antibiotics don't kill the staph bacteria, it means the bacteria have become resistant to those antibiotics. This type of staph is called MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
Are you embarrassed, or believe it's just a cut that won't heal or a rash that won't go away? Think again. Although most staph infections may not be severe, you still want to seek medical attention. Staph infection can become deadly if not properly treated, by entering your bloodstream or organs.
Researchers treated mice and human blood cells in lab dishes with a hefty dose of vitamin B3 and found that the ability of immune system cells to fight a staph infection was increased a thousandfold. In particular, the vitamin helped treat staph infections that are resistant to antibiotics, they said.
Alternative Remedies Some people apply substances with reported antimicrobial properties, such as tea tree oil, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, eucalyptus essential oil, oregano essential oil, and others to skin infections to help them heal.
HIBICLENS is an OTC antimicrobial skin cleanser that contains 4% chlorhexidine gluconate, which kills bacteria (including staph) on contact and provides long-lasting antimicrobial activity.
Each case of staph infection is different, but most often staph will resolve in 1-3 weeks. Once you complete your antibiotic treatment, you'll no longer be contagious, but you should keep any skin infection clean and covered until it is completely gone.
Bacteremia. Also known as a bloodstream infection, bacteremia occurs when staph bacteria enter the bloodstream. A fever and low blood pressure are signs of bacteremia.
Staph infections typically start on the skin, but they can spread to other areas of the body without treatment. Impetigo is highly contagious and causes painful sores on the skin.
Any suspicious area of red or painful skin. A high fever or fever accompanying skin symptoms. Pus-filled blisters. Two or more family members who have been diagnosed with a staph infection.
Antibiotics commonly prescribed to treat staph infections include cefazolin, nafcillin, oxacillin, vancomycin, daptomycin and linezolid. For serious staph infections, vancomycin may be required.
Mupirocin (Centany) Mupirocin is a topical medication used to treat moderate-to-severe small skin infections, such as impetigo or a "Staph" infection of the skin. It comes in a cream or ointment that's applied onto your skin, and it has very few side effects.
Antibacterial properties
One test tube study found that apple cider vinegar was effective at killing Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, which is the bacteria responsible for staph infections.
Staph bacteria are killed by cooking, but the toxins are not destroyed and will still be able to cause illness. Foods that are not cooked after handling, such as sliced meats, puddings, pastries, and sandwiches, are especially risky if contaminated with Staph.
Staph bacteria feed on blood because they need the iron that's hidden away inside red blood cells to grow and cause infections. It turns out that these microbial vampires prefer the taste of human blood, Vanderbilt University scientists have discovered. The researchers report in the Dec.
Using three antibiotic drugs thought to be useless against MRSA infection — piperacillin and tazobactam (bottle on left) and meropenem — Washington University researchers, led by Gautam Dantas, PhD, have killed the deadly staph infection in culture and in laboratory mice.
If the sore becomes unusually painful or red, get prompt medical attention. If red lines develop, that's a sign the infection is spreading and needs immediate medical attention.
“If there is fever, rapidly spreading redness, rapid heart rate, or extraordinary pain that is disproportionate to the wound or injury, that is when you tell the patient to visit the hospital,” he said.