You undoubtedly have heard, seen, or read at least something about staph infections. You may have heard about staph infections that are resistant to antibiotic treatment. Like many people, you may have legitimate concerns about staph infections. As a consequence, you may want to know how a staph infection is cured.
Can My Body Fight off a Staph Infection?
As mentioned at the outset of this article, there are three categories of staph infections. The same holds true for the far more resilient MRSA infection. These are skin infections, deeper skin infections, and infections beyond the skin and within a person’s body.
Your body very well may have the potential to fight off a staph infection that is contained in the upper part of your skin. Your immune system needs to be in good condition and not compromised for this to occur. (As an aside a very young person and an older individual with other health issues may face at least some challenge fighting off a staph infection at the surface of the skin without additional medical care and treatment.)
If you think you have got a staph infection on your skin, you should consult with your primary care physician. Your doctor will advise as to whether your body likely can address and resolve the infection on its own accord and without antibiotics.
If your doctor gives you a green light to allow your body time to resolve the infection, you must monitor it closely. You should see progress towards the infection resolving in a matter of two to three days. If you end up not seeing any progress toward a resolution of an infection, you need to return to your doctor for further directives. At that juncture, your doctor is likely to recommend a course of antibiotics to resolve the infection.
Can I Pop a Staph Infection?
If you have got a staph infection blister of puss module on your skin, it will look rather like a whitehead pimple. You may have an immediate inclination to pop it, to drain it on your own accord. The internet is awash in different recommendations regarding popping a staph infection blister.
In the final analysis, if you go about popping a ski-level staph infection blister in your own, you will be able to drain it. However, what might also happen is damage to deeper layers of the skin which might drive the infection further into your skin. By popping the blister, you may provide some immediate relief as far as the accumulation of puss is concerned. However, you may end up worsening the infection by driving it deeper into your skin. If that happens, the infection becomes harder to treat.
If you want to drain a staph infection blister, you should make an appointment to see your doctor. Your doctor has the training and equipment needed to safely drain a staph infection blister on your skin if that action is necessary or advisable.
What Antibiotics Are Used to Treat a Staph Infection?
Antibiotics that are used to treat a staph infection depends on whether or not it’s is a resistant strain of the bacteria. Four types of antibiotics are more commonly used to treat staph infections. These are:
- Penicillin
- Methicillin
- Vancomycin
- Mupirocin
Historically, penicillin was the antibiotic most commonly utilized to treat infections like those caused by staph bacteria. Penicillin is still used for milder staph infections (particularly those in the skin). The Mayo Clinic reports that less than 10 percent of staph infections respond to penicillin in this day and age. This is because different strains of staph bacteria have developed a resistance to it. (The issue of resistance is discussed more fully in a moment.)
Methicillin is the type of antibiotic most commonly used in treating staph infections today. It is more powerful than penicillin and is able to combat some strains of staph that are resistant to penicillin. With that said, the Mayo Clinic advises that methicillin is effective in under 50 percent of cases of staph infection.
Vancomycin is an antibiotic that is significantly more powerful than penicillin and methicillin. Vancomycin is seen as something as a last resort when it comes to antibiotic treatment of staph infections. This antibiotic currently generally is effective against resistant strains of staph. However, health care providers and researchers advise that staph bacteria will become resistant to this vancomycin in time.
Finally, mupirocin in ointment form is an antibiotic that is utilized to kill staph bacteria that live in the nasal cavity. This antibiotic ointment is demonstrated as being highly effective at eliminating nasal staph bacteria. This is valuable because it decreases the incidence of staph bacteria spreading from one person to another.
What Is MRSA? What Is Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus?
In basic terms, MRSA is a category of staph bacteria that has become ever more resistant to a growing number of different types of staph bacteria. As a consequence, a person with an MRSA infection can become seriously ill. Indeed, there are incidents in which a person with an MRSA infection dies because antibiotics fail to treat the infection in an effective, timely manner.
In addition to being resistant to antibiotics, MRSA poses another significant threat to the general population. MRSA bacteria can not only be spread by direct person to person contact but also when an individual comes into contact with an object on which this type of bacteria is found. MRSA bacteria can survive on inanimate objects and on the skin of hosts for an extended period of time. About 2 percent of the U.S. population is thought to carry MRSA bacteria, but not be infected by it,
If a person in your home has been infected with staph, particularly MRSA, serious consideration should be had to hiring an infectious disease cleanup specialist. This type of biohazard remediation is the surest way to ensure that the risk of exposure to MRSA bacteria is eradicated in your home.