What are the Causes of Skin Infection and How to Get Rid of It
What are skin infections?
Your skin is the most spreaded part of your body. It has many different functions, including covering and protecting your body. This helps keep germs out. But sometimes germs can cause skin infections. This often occurs when there is a break, cut, or wound on your skin. It can also occur when your immune system is weakened due to some other disease or medical treatment.
Some skin infections cover a small area at the top of your skin. Other infections can go deep into your skin or spread over a large area.
What Causes Skin Infection?
Skin infections are caused by various types of germs. for example,
- Bacteria cause cellulitis, impetigo, and staphylococcal (staph) infections.
- The virus causes herpes, warts, and herpes simplex.
- The fungus causes athlete’s foot and yeast infection
- Parasites cause body lice, head lice, and itching
Who is at risk for skin infection?
If you are at high risk for a skin infection then you:
- Have poor circulation
- Have diabetes
- Are old
- Is an immune system disease, such as HIV / AIDS
- Weak immune system due to chemotherapy or other drugs which suppresses your immune system
- Staying in a fixed position for a long
- Are malnourished
- Have excessive skin falls, which can occur when you are obese.
What are the symptoms of skin infection?
Symptoms depend on the type of infection. Some symptoms that are common to many skin infections include rashes, redness, swelling, pus, pain, and itching.
How is a skin infection diagnosed?
To diagnose a skin infection, health care providers will perform a physical examination and ask about your symptoms. They may also suggest laboratory tests such as skin culture. This is a test to identify which type of infection you need, using a sample from your skin. Your provider may take a sample by scraping or scratching your skin, or by removing a small piece of skin (biopsy).
How is skin infection treated?
Treatment of skin infection depends in what type of infection it is and how severe it is. Some infections will go away on their own. When you need treatment, it may include creams or lotions to apply to the skin. Other possible treatments include a procedure to exclude medications and pus.
There are 3 types of skin infections:
Bacterial skin infection
The skin gives a good barrier against bacterial infection. Although many bacteria come into or remain in contact with the skin, they are generally unable to establish infection. When bacteria are infected with the skin, they can range in size from the smallest area to the entire body surface. They can be life-threatening from severe as well as harmless.
Bacterial skin infection develops when bacteria enter through the hair follicles or through small pauses in the skin, which are scrapes, punctures, surgeries, burns, sunburn, animal or insect bites, wounds, And arise from skin disorders. While participating in a wide variety of activities, gardening in contaminated soil or swimming in a contaminated pond, lake, or sea can cause people to develop bacterial skin infections.
Causes of bacterial infection
Many types of bacteria can infect the skin. The most common are Staphylococcus and Streptococcus. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (also known as MRSA), which is resistant to many commonly used antibiotics, is now the most common bacterial infection of the skin in the United States. A particular strain of MRSA has caused more than half of all community-related skin and soft tissue infections treated in the United States. Because MRSA is resistant to many antibiotics, the doctor tailors their treatment based on how often MRSA is found in the local area and whether it is resistant to commonly used antibiotics.
what are its dangers?
Some people are at particular risk of skin infections:
- People with diabetes, who are prone to blood loss (especially in the hands and feet), have high levels of glucose in their blood (glucose), which reduces their ability to fight infections.
- People who are hospitalized or living in nursing homes
- People who are old
- People who have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), AIDS or other immune disorder or hepatitis
- People who are undergoing chemotherapy or are treated with other drugs that suppress the immune system
Skin that is inflamed or damaged is more likely to be infected. In fact, any rupture in the skin makes a person susceptible to infection.
Prevention
Cleaning the skin with soap and water
To prevent bacterial skin infection, it is important to keep the skin spotless and clean. When the skin is cut or scratched, the bruise should be washed with soap and water and covered with a sterile bandage.
Keeping tissue moist and bacterial Petrolatum can be applied in open areas to try to prevent the invasion of mice. Doctors advise every people not to use any antibiotic ointment (prescription or nonprescription) on minor wounds due to the risk of developing allergies to antibiotics.
Treatment
- Antibiotic medicines
- Drainage of abscesses
Antibiotic ointment is used when a minor skin infection develops. If a large area of skin is infected, antibiotics should also be taken by mouth or given by injection.
The residue should be cut open by a doctor and allowed to drain, and any dead tissue should be surgically removed.
Fungal Skin Infection
Fungi usually make their homes in moist areas of the body where the surface of the skin is found: between the toes, in the genital area, and under the breasts. Common fungal skin infections are caused by yeast or dermatophytes, such as epidermophytan, Microsporum, and trichophyton. Many such fungi live only in the uppermost layer of the epidermis and do not penetrate deep. Obese people are more likely to get these infections because they have excessive skinfolds, especially if the skin within the skin becomes irritable and breaks. People with diabetes are more prone to develop fungal infections.
Oddly, fungal infections on one part of the body can cause infections in other parts of the body that are not infected. For example, a fungal infection on the feet can cause an itchy, bumpy rash on the fingers. These eruptions are allergic reactions to the fungus. They do not result with touching the infected area.
The diagnosis
Skin peeling or culture.
Doctors can detect a fungal infection when they see a red, irritable, or rash in one of the affected areas.
They are usually scraped off a small amount of skin and examined under a microscope or placed in a culture medium where specific fungi can grow and be identified.
Treatment
- Antifungal drugs
- Ways to prevent moisture
Fungal infections are usually treated with antifungal drugs, usually with antifungal drugs that are directly applied to the affected area (called topical medications). Topical medications may include gels , creams, solutions , lotions, or shampoos. Antifungal medicines can also be taken by mouth.
In addition to medicines, people can use measures to keep the affected areas dry, such as applying powder or wearing open-toed shoes.
For some infections, doctors give corticosteroids to relieve swelling and itching.
Skin rashes and other problems
Is your face, chest, or back is covered with small, pus-filled pouches/bumps or pimples, blackheads, or red bumps in the throat?
It can be ACNE, a common skin problem that often begins in adolescence and may continue throughout life.
If you have a fringed appearance, perhaps with redness around your cheeks, chin, forehead, or nose.
It may be a skin disease ROSACEA, which affects the face.
Do you have painful red bumps or a group of painful red bumps?
This can be a BOIL. A bunch of boils is called a carbuncle. These are caused by infections under the skin.
Do you have a small, boil-like infection around the hair shaft or orifice?
It may be FOLLICULITIS, an infection of the hair follicle. These can occur after the use of a shared hot tub or bath.
Do you have redness, tender, and swollen areas on the skin, around a cut or scrap?
It can be CELLULITIS, an infection of the skin. It can also be a normal treatment in the first 1-2 days after an injury.
Do you have red, itchy spots on your skin, and are they sprayed randomly?
These can be INSECT BITES. These are usually not harmful. Use antihistamine, hydrocortisone cream, and ice to relieved from itching. If symptoms worsen or are not clear, call your doctor. If new symptoms arise, such as difficulty breathing, dizziness, or nausea, go to the emergency room immediately.
Do you have irregular, raised, or flat red sores that appeared after taking the medicine?
It may be an allergic reaction to a medicine. Call your doctor.
Have sudden bumps formed on your face or body?
These may be HIVES (URTICARIA), an allergic, drug, or skin reaction to an infection. They may also appear in some people who are very nervous.
Do you have red, itchy, flaky, and oily rashes, and does it affect the areas around your eyebrows, nose, or the side of your scalp?
This may be a sign of SEBORRHEIC DERMATITIS, a condition in which the sebaceous glands overtake the oil and may be associated with DANDRUFF.
Does the person have a baby and have dry, crusted skin covering the head?
It may be a cradle cap in infants as a cradle.
Do you have red, scaling rash, and did it begin after exposure to clothes, jewelry, or perfume?
This may be IRRITANT CONTACT DERMATITIS. It is caused by the reaction of detergents, perfumes, certain metals (such as copper), and other substances.
Do you have red, itchy rashes, and blisters Are being made? Are there bumps in a linear pattern? Do they look like bumps in a row?
this may be ALLERGIC CONTACT DERMATITIS can occur because of POISON IVY, POISON OAK, or POISON SUMAC. Oil from these plants can causes an allergic reaction.
Are the hairs in your armpits or other areas red, swollen, soft, bulging, where the hair grows?
It can be HIDRADENITIS SUPPURATIVA, inflammation of sweat glands.
See your doctor. Avoid the use of deodorant and antiperspirant.
Do you have any small red dots on your skin, or scratch-like spots that appeared after taking a prescription or counter medicine?
It may be
ALLERGIC PURPURA, a severe allergic reaction to a drug such as an antibiotic, which can cause bleeding under the skin.
Do you have a rash that started with a single scalp, red, and a slightly itchy spot (likely to be on your chest or back), and within a few days, small patches of large rash, some red And the other tan, broke out of his chest and stomach?
It can be
PITYRIASIS ROSEA. The reasons are not known.
Check with your doctor. Calamine lotion and antihistamines can relieve itching and redness. The rashes will probably go away in a few weeks. PITYRIASIS ROSEA usually does not require any treatment other than itching.
Do you have a itchness with red bumps and blisters, and does it appear on your knees, elbows, back, or buttocks?
It may be DERMATITIS HERPETIFORMIS, a grain associated with sensitivity to gluten, a mixture of two proteins, such as barley and wheat, in cereal grains.
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