Should I be afraid to go to someone house where they have a staph infection?
the person is on antibiotics now, and the sore is almost healed. But I am afraid of catching staph from just being in a home where someone has it.
this person isn't the greatest with making sure she washes her hands, and I'd be very paranoid the whole time.
I know sometimes I scratch my skin. Well, I'm itchy still sometimes, and will accidently scratch an almost healed spot off of myself. Couldn't I easily catch staph then?

My husband currently has a staph infection on his forearm, and is on antibiotics. Here is how we keep the rest of the family from getting it. First off I have to say that I am more likely to get it than not. I am prone to getting skin infections and so I am more than nervous when he gets one!

He is sleeping on the futon bed in another room, he keeps the infection covered with a guaze pad at all times, excpet when showering. He is the only one allowed to use that shower, and no one uses his towel afterwards either, it goes straight in the wash. He washes his hands religiously and generously uses hand sanitizer, and antibacterial soap. Even his dirty clothes are separated. I am the only one putting the clothes in the wash and then I scrub my hands afterwards. He takes the trash out immediately after cleaning the wound and tossing his infected trash in the basket (which is also lined with a plastic bag). I feel our house is very sanitary in this aspect.

Now if your friend is not very sanitary and you have open sores, or scratch and might break the skin, then you might want to think twice before going over there. Bacteria are very easy to pick up and carry around on your skin unknowingly. My husband is pretty sure that he got his from the county courthouse. He went in for jury duty and sat there for hours, resting his arm on the tables, counters, etc. and then when he went out for lunch he got bit by a bug and scratched at the bug bite. By the next day his arm was swelling and filling with puss. (Not pretty, I know). Within two days he went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. They confirmed it was staph. It is that easy to get it.

Staph germs are all around us, apparently it also frequently lives on the skin or in the nose of a healthy person. I doubt that you would contract a staph infection simply from being in the home of an infected person, but you need to go with your own comfort level...if it is a real concern, then wait until they are healthy again.

Here is some more detailed info on Staphylococcus aureus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staph

Michelle

Thank you for the replies!
WEll, I am a paranoid person in general about germs. :-(
The person s house in question is not very clean by my standards. (now I sound like a snob. LOL)
I think I'll need to pass, but worried about hurting feelings. :-(

Staph is everywhere. There is staph on your skin right now, mine too.

Having an active rash will make you more susceptible to an infection, but you could just as easily pick up an infection from shopping at the mall as you could from this person's house.

This is a big topic with me right now; I'm currently dealing with my second methcillin-resistant staph infection (affectionately known as MRSA) in 6 months. Apparently it's only within the last year or so that people are starting to acquire this from the community (as opposed to hospitals, where all sorts of nasty things hang out). When I got the first one in April, Kaiser was clueless and played musical antibiotics with me for 10 days before they finally diagnosed it correctly and put me on Septra. My sister, a pediatrician in Florida, was much more knowledgeable about it and diagnosed me correctly over the phone on Day 1. After all this, I wrote Kaiser a letter about the whole affair, and much to my suprise, they actually took it very seriously and got their act together about it. (So this time I got the Septra right away, yee-hah!)

Anyway, my point is: if you get a skin abscess these days, odds are EXTREMELY high that it's MRSA and that the penicillin family won't touch it. DEMAND that your doctor culture the fluid for MRSA so you can get on an effective antibiotic.

This bug is also extremely hard to eradicate completely, and my sister gave me a pretty complicated decontamination protocol for the whole house: throw out all liquid toiletries, wash all towels and bedding with bleach once I had been on Septra for a few days, bathe with an anti-bacterial soap at least once a week for a YEAR - all kinds of stuff. And even with all that, here I am with another stupid abscess 6 months later. So honestly, I think it's a perfectly reasonable concern that you might catch it from someone's house!


Jeanne, annoyed that I'm being out-evolved by bacteria