Skin Infection Can Result From Different Causes
Human beings are the perfect host for many types of bacteria, offering a home complete with all the necessary things that keep the bacteria cells alive and reproducing. One of the most common indications of the presence of bacteria is a skin infection than can result from any number of ways. A cut that opens the skin is often inviting to many bacteria as well as a previous skin disease and bad hygiene. In rare instances if the human host has an immune deficiency the individual will not be able to fight off a skin infection using their own defenses.
Since bacteria do not require a host for survival, it is possible for persons to pick up the bacteria from non-living surfaces and allow the bacteria to grow on them or in them. Hand washing is probably the number one method of fighting bacterial infections, but it is common for a skin infection to occur when a person with a small lesion comes into contact with bacteria.
This self-replicating organism can reproduce without help and only one cell can rapidly reproduce to grow exacerbating the spread of a skin infection. One of the most common types of skin infection is caused by the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, commonly referred to as a staph infection.
Identifying Cause Of Infection Directs Treatment
Different types of skin infections will require different antibiotics, however new strains of many of the known bacteria is making treatment difficult with some forms showing high resistance to most known medical treatments. A new strain of staphylococcus has mutated into a type simply referred to as M.R.S.A., Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus which is unaffected by many of the previous successful antibiotic treatments.
If this type of bacteria makes its way into the blood stream, it can be transported into vital organs and with its resistance to treatment can prove fatal in many patients. Determining if a skin infection is of the resistant type will require examination of the bacteria before a treatment regimen can begin. Since staph infections often live on the skin or in the mucus membranes, when a skin infection has been diagnosed as a staph infection, the patient as well as others in close contact will also need to be treated.
Other, less serious types of a skin infection can usually be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin and amoxicillin, often in a topical application. It is important that the cause of the skin infection is properly diagnosed in order for an effective treatment to begin.
