Reoccurring impetigo

[Chloe30]

I had impetigo on my face 2 weeks ago, it started on my lip then spreaded across my cheeks and nose. After trying 2 different antibiotics it went, however 3 days later it came back again. I've now been off work for another week and my lip and cheeks are covered, I started new antibiotics Wednesday not much improvement. I've had blood tests which have came back fine, and a swab of my lip which I haven't got the results for yet. Can anyone help my face is red and itchy and crusting, and it's so itchy I can't cope with it. Shall I go to hospital or wait another few days to see if the antibiotics do anything?

[gfmum1]

I would ask your GP if there's anything he/she can give you to relieve the itching.

I empathise with you, impetigo is very difficult to eradicate. When my son caught this at nursery school years ago, it kept coming back. In the end I was washing the towels/bedding every day, not sharing towels etc etc, but the other things I did were to use tea tree oil products (those which had a high percentage of tea tree oil in them), as it has antibacterial properties; and I kept our nails very short so we could make sure that when we washed our hands, they were as clean as they could be by scrubbing our nails.

[lovesradio]

I am echoing gfmum really. In addition to antibiotics, use cotton wool pads or balls to apply cooled boiled water containing a drop of lavender and same of tea tree oil, using a fresh pad/ball for every section of affected skin. Lavender will calm the redness and itching as well as addressing the infection. Try a tiny patch first to check for any adverse reaction. No make up.

My son developed it around his mouth when he was about 6 years old and we were given Fucidin cream to apply so it might be worth asking your GP about that.

[Marc68]

Hi there. I'm not on this part of the site so this might be a bit late but I've had impetigo for over 20 years which I caught as a front row rugby player. I initially tried antibiotics but they just didn't work so was put on fucidin (fucidic acid).

There are a few things that seem to set it off... exhaustion and/or not eating well sets it off sometimes whereas sunburn on my face almost always fires it up. Glass fibre insulation is another one.. as soon as I get near it and the glass filaments get into my skin, it comes up almost immediately. Apart from when glass fibre is the cause, invariably when it starts I get neuralgia in the 24 hours before the sores appear. That gives me an early warning to apply some cream, IF I can guess where it's going to come up. Don't go scratching for where it might come up though as it will make it appear there.

I find that in between fucidin applications, washing your face with soapy water and letting it dry out for a while helps, then re-apply the cream. Washing the old, spent cream off seems to make the new application work much, much better, for me at least.

A word of warning about fucidin though.. it's an acid so only use it when you need to. It takes layers off your skin and over-use can cause damage.

If you do go on fucidin, the cream is a lot less messy than the gel.

Hope some of that helps.