Impetigo

Impetigo

As a child, I suffered from impetigo. My case began as the mere chicken pox, but soon became infected with this disease. Impetigo is an infection of the skin caused by staphylococcus (S. Aureus) and/or streptococcus pyogenes (A. Strep). Although this infection can happen to anyone at anytime, it is most common in children and infants living in hot humid climates, as we do in central Louisiana. I’m actually surprised impetigo is a little known disease here with no known outbreaks.

In 1881, when Sir Alexander Ogston was observing pus emerging from certain human abscesses, he noticed grape like clusters of those abscesses. As the first signs of impetigo, doctors and medicine men knew little about the disease and its effects on the human body. S. aureus and a. strep bacteria are living on our skin all the time and at any given time and, once we have a cut or a break/ irritation in the skin, the two enter into our skin and release toxins that kick start the infection. Whether it’s shaving, falling and scraping your knees, or scratching an itch too hard, any type of skin irritation can open the gates for these bacteria.

Now, I’ve explained to you what impetigo is, but more importantly I want to inform you of what it does. The first signs of impetigo are small blisters on the skin. As the disease progresses, the blisters become larger and are filled with a clear fluid top, or vesicle, that turns a cloudy color before it pops. Once again, these blisters come from the original infection of the s. aureus and a. strep bacteria. After these blisters burst, the skin becomes moist and red and may also ooze. Now that the outer blister is gone, the skin remaining becomes coated with a honey-colored, yellow crust. There are three basic forms of impetigo of which include non-bulbous impetigo, bulbous impetigo, and ecthyma. Non-bulbous impetigo occurs most common around the nose and mouth. This contains but is not limited to red sores the rupture quickly leaving...