Staphylococcus Aureus Part 3

Treatments for staph infections vary greatly by the severity of infection. Less deadly and commonly occurring staph infections can heal without treatment. Boils usually take approximately one half to nearly an entire month to heal on their own, but treatment may speed the process up. Styes will usually heal in about 10 days without treatment. However, if any type of infection worsens or is abnormally swollen, red or painful in any of these situations, you should call your doctor immediately. Guidelines for when to call the doctor about infection can be found on the Staph infections informational page of the teen health website.

“If an area of infection on your body becomes very red, sore or is accompanied by fever or generally ill feeling, call your doctor. You may need antibiotics to treat the infection. A large, pus-filled area may need to be drained by a doctor. Also call your doctor if skin infections seem to be passing from one family member to another or if two or more family members have skin infections at the same time,” (Staph Infections).

For all other, more serious infections, doctors almost always use antibiotics for treatment. However, with rapidly increasing occurrences of MRSA, doctors must be careful about when and how much antibiotic to use. Although there are treatments for staph infections, what type of prevention control exists?