I have had reoccuring Staph and they will not go away?

Question

I have been on antiboitics on and off for the past 4 mos and have been getting stph. infections on my legs, I am a germ-a-phob and have excellant Hygiene. Not only is the scarring awful, each infection gets to be huge and causes me great pain and I get flu like symptoms. I have been prescibed bactrim tablets 2 times a day, wash w/hibicleanse and change my towels and bedding EVERYday. I am now with out insurance and I need to know what else I can do, the one I am battling now has drained 6 times of this awful mess and it refills each day. Please give me advice on what to do, I can't keep going to the doctor and hearing him tell me the same thing. I have read that people gp to the hospital for this for a 7 day IV? and something about a low IgA level may be the cause...please help before I go crazy, and this morning i can feel another one forming under my pubic hair.... OMG!

Answer 1

Sorry to hear that you're so plagued with staph infections.

It sounds like you've been colonized with the community acquired MRSA bug which can be a nasty bug that it hard to eradicate. It's particularly painful because it can set up infections even in intact skin.

Sometimes the staph hides out around the nasal hairs during rounds of antibiotics - the antibiotics kill all the staph except for the ones in the nose and then the staph in the nose eventually recolonize the rest of the body and then set up new skin infections. You might consider combining antibiotic ointment to the nose with your next round of antibiotics or simply starting it now and continuing it for a while.

Apply the antibiotic ointment to the nasal passages twice a day (be sure to wash your hands after each application). Bactroban is often used but it's prescription only which might be tough to swing without insurance. Some folks feel that over the counter triple antibiotic ointment is just as effective and is much easier on the pocketbook!

Has the current infection been properly drained? Sometimes
incomplete drainage can allow an infection to linger when it might otherwise have not.

Best of luck to you!

Answer 2

Hi I know what you are going thru I went through the same thing about 2 yrs ago Have you tested for MRSA look this up its probably what you are dealing with I Had this and was in the hospital for 8 days and was on an intra-venous pump of Antibiotics for 6 months after i left the hospital They said I got it because my immune system has been weakened from Diabettes and Mediteranian Anemia There is a big problem with this Bacteria. It is finally getting attention in the news lately It is from doctors over perscribing antibiotics and all the antibiotics they are using in our foods these days Good luck with it look in the CDC journals for more info on MSRA methicillin resistant staph aureus

Answer 3

When I had a staph infection a few years ago, it was a sulfur powder that I bought over the counter at a pharmacy in Mexico that did it, combined with being on Clindamycin. You might want to look at places that sell herbal remedies and ask about getting something like this. I know how awful this is. I'll pray for you.

Answer 4

Wow! With the recent outbreak of antibiotic resistant Staph I would seek alternative treatment ASAP. Staph can be a serious illness if untreated. If your doctor will not help you, go somewhere else. You need to get this cleared up right away. DO NOT WAIT!

Answer 5

Hibicleanse is good. Bactrim is the drug of choice. Second choice is Clindamycin. Has the doc also told you to use bactroban ointment in your nasal cavity twice a day x 1 month? This is how it is gotten rid of systemically. It will also stop the other outbreaks.

Tell me, do you have paneling in your home? It holds staph infections and if not washed regularly will do this.

Good luck, Flu symtptoms are from the bacterial infection. See a surgeon if necessary. They take payments if you go through the ER.

Answer 6

It looks like you are doing nearly everything that you can do to control this.

Low levels of IgA are associated with recurrent staph infections - this is usually caused by a condition called Common Variable Immunodeficiency (if you want to look it up). You could call your docs office to have them write a lab order for the blood test and see what the results show. Unfortunately, IgA treatments are extremely expensive, but they do not typically require hospitilization.

With IgA therapy, people are typically given either injections or IVs every 2-4 weeks, in perpetuity. With each IgA treatment, the patient has to remain at the clinic for several hours after treatment to watch for allergic reactions. If you have low IgA levels, it might be worth trying at least one injection to see if it helps. It will stop new infections from occurring for 3-5 weeks if low IgA is the reason for the infections. If you decide to continue treatments, its possible you could try increasing the amount of time between them - maybe you could stretch the treatments to every 6 weeks or more to reduce the costs.

If you do not have low IgA levels in your blood, they could still become lowered on your skin by too much washing. IgA is secreted onto the skin along with fats and oils that provide the primary defense mechanism on the skin's surface. You could try a totally different approach to bathing by minimizing the amount of soaps and detergents, with the goal of maintaining natural secretions as much as possible. On infected sites, you could rinse them only with water; use two towels to dry - one for uninfected areas, and another for the infected areas; gently pat the infected areas with a towel; apply betadine to the infected area and all around it, and then cover the infected area with sterile gauze.