What are the symptoms of a staph infection?

Question

What kind of symptoms do you get? How painful is the site of the infection? How does staph look?

Answer 1

Like many healthy people, you probably have some Staphylococcus aureus bacteria — usually simply called staph — on your skin or in your nose or throat. Most of the time, the bacteria cause no problems or relatively minor skin infections. But staph infections can turn deadly if the bacteria burrow deeper into your body, invading your bloodstream, urinary tract, lungs and heart.

Staph infections can range from minor skin problems to food poisoning, fatal pneumonia, surgical wound infections and endocarditis, a life-threatening inflammation of your heart lining. As a result, signs and symptoms of staph infections vary widely, depending on the location and severity of the infection and on whether your illness results from direct infection with staph bacteria or from toxins the bacteria produce.

    * Skin infections. Staph bacteria cause most skin infections, including boils; cellulitis, a potentially life-threatening infection that leaves skin inflamed and tender; impetigo, a rash common in young children and infants; and scalded skin syndrome, a serious, blistering condition that mainly affects newborns. Though each condition has specific features, most begin with skin redness, swelling, warmth, tenderness and sometimes fever. Some staph infections are localized; others can cover your entire body.

    * Food poisoning. Signs and symptoms of staph-related food poisoning usually come on quickly — as soon as one to six hours after eating contaminated food. They include abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The illness often leaves just as suddenly as it came, and most people recover in a day or two, though the effects can be more serious and longer lasting in children and older adults.

    * Toxic shock syndrome. This life-threatening condition, which has been linked to the use of certain types of tampons and less often, to skin wounds and surgery, usually develops suddenly, with a high fever, nausea and vomiting, a rash on your palms and soles that resembles sunburn, confusion, muscle aches, seizures and headache.

    * Septic arthritis. Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, which may result from an overzealous immune system, or osteoarthritis, which develops after years of wear and tear on joints, septic arthritis is often caused by a staph infection. The bacteria usually target the knees, but other joints can be affected, including your ankle, hip, wrist, elbow and shoulder. You're likely to have swelling and severe pain in the affected joint, along with fever and shaking chills.

    *

      Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In the 1970s, a particularly dangerous and drug-resistant form of staph infection called MRSA appeared in hospitals. It was one of the first bacteria to outwit common antibiotics. MRSA infections often begin as a superficial skin problem that resembles a pimple or spider bite, but which can quickly turn into a deep, painful abscess that requires surgical draining. Infections in surgical wounds cause pain, redness, swelling and sometimes draining pus.

      If the bacteria spread deeper into your body, they can cause fatal infections in your bloodstream, bones, heart lining or lungs. The symptoms vary, depending on which part of your body is affected, but most infections are accompanied by fever, chills and sweats.

    * Community-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. (CA-MRSA). Once confined to hospitals, a new kind of MRSA is now increasingly common in the general community. Called CA-MRSA, some community-acquired strains cause skin infections or a deadly pneumonia. Signs and symptoms, which are similar to those of other types of pneumonia, include cough, shortness of breath and chest pain, but the bacteria also cause massive inflammation and destruction of lung tissue.-