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1415174 tn?1453243103

How is everyone today? If you have a question feel free.

We're here to help you with your infections and other infectious disease matters like bite wounds and any kind of
issue such as boils, or sores. When travel you can come across different viruses and bacteria.
Let me know if I can be of help.
regards,
mkh9

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Avatar universal
Have a boil on my neck for last 10 years with one on my foot as well that seem to be connected and being allergic to sulfa hasn’t helped.
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Hi, Supersta06
Has a doctor performed a  culture your boils to see if it is bacterial  or something else?  Sulfa drugs don't work on everything. So they have to find which bacteria it is a check with a antibiotic sensitivity panel with that bacteria to see which antibiotic is best for it. Sometimes it comes back and it can get resistant to that antibiotic and they have to try a different antibiotic.  Do you know if it was MRSA? Or which bacteria is in the boils?
mkh9
973741 tn?1342342773
So, a skin issue that has always intrigued me is cellulitis.  My husband has this and it was almost at a critical point.  His ear blew up and the swelling went down his cheek close to his eye.  We were sent to an ENT on an emergency basis and if it didn't respond to their treatment, he was going to be admitted to the hospital.  It did respond to hefty antibiotics but we still don't know why that happened!  What are your thoughts on this skin infection?
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3 Comments
Hi , I'm sorry your husband got cellulitis. Cellulitis is an infection of the deeper layers of the skin called the dermis and subcutaneous tissue. So the main bacteria are Staphylococus (Staph) or Streptococcus (Strep). There are some other bacteria that can cause this too. Even though these bacteria can be normally found on the skin surface they can also produce toxins and cause more serious infections. If there is a puncture wound or a break down in skin tissue then it can get into the deeper layers of tissue. Age, quality of skin tissue, immunity and how many toxins or antigens the bacteria has can be a cause of why it is more likely to get cellulitis. Also, it is harder to treat if the bacteria becomes resistant. One resistant type of Staph is Staph aureus. This Staph can become resistant to multiple antibiotics. It is also referred to as MRSA short for Methicillin Resistant Staph aureus. Methicillin is one type of antibiotic. So it is possible that he had a resistant strain of staph or a toxin caused by a Strep. Did you find out the type of bacteria? They can do a culture or molecular test of the skin infection to determine what type of bacteria it is. They often also do sensitivity testing of the bacteria to see how resistant it is to various types of antibiotics. If they did a culture and it was positive they should have done a antibiotic resistance test. That way the doctor can change antibiotics if the bacteria is resistant.
I hope he is doing better.
mkh9
Thanks for the info!  He is doing better.  The type of bacteria was staph and he needed a second antibiotic as the first did not work.  When they told us that we were going to have to admit him to the hospital if that antibiotic didn't work, I got really worried.  I guess the fear was where the infection was---  near the eye.  Doctors were acting with a sense of urgency.  I've had to see an ENT before . . . usually you wait a bit to get an appointment but we were sent right over and worked in when our GP made the call to the ENT.  Thankful for that.  It was just so weird as it really felt like it was out of the blue.  

MRSA is scary.  Guess that was part of the concern.  Are you more likely to get that IN the hospital though.  Thought I'd read that!
Hi and all great questions. There are treatments for MRSA now. So it is multi-drug resistant but does have some treatment. It is just harder. You can get MRSA in the community or in the hospital/doctors offices etc. It can be more in the hospital environment because a lot of people may have lowered immunity there. But you can get it anywhere. For example the gym or other crowded place.

mkh9
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