How to get rid of rid of impetigo or staph infection, 6 good pieces of advice.

Many athletes practicing contact sports have suffered from Impetigo at some point. Impetigo is normally a children’s disease, so it is pretty ironic that it’s seen so often in ‘manly’ sports like MMA, wrestling and football.    
Impetigo is caused by the bacteria staphylococcus or Streptococcus infecting the skin through even the smallest opening, and it is extremely contagious.
Once impetigo is in the gym it is very hard to get rid of it, mostly because it’s hard to keep track of all your training partner’s skin condition, but here is something to think about that might help you avoid those nasty wounds and help against a lot of other skin disorders.

The carrier might not get the symptoms – Sometimes impetigo can reappear again and again even though nobody else seems to be infected. The reason is that the bacteria are pretty common bacteria in the nostrils and throat.

Avoid spreading you bacteria to your training partners – If you tend to sweat a lot or work or work at a place where you are likely to pick up germs, do your training partners a favor and take a shower before training.
It is also good to wear a rashguard although it will not stop you from spreading or catching impetigo, it will help against some skin disorders and minimize the amount of scrape you get.
And most importantly never train i you know that you are infected with anything that is contagious.

Take good care of cuts and scrapes – Run some chlorhexidine or other antiseptics on any breaches of your skin. This is not only good to do if you rolled with somebody who turned out to have impetigo.  It will take care of a lot of skin disorders and will help heal your battle wounds.

Wash yourself with salt water – There are a lot of different skin care products for wrestlers which are antiseptic, but washing yourself with these can be rough for your skin, wallet and the environment.
Instead you can get rid of the germs by pouring salt water over you after taking a bath and then air dry. The salt will dry out and kill the bacteria, this is the oldest trick in the book and might also be accomplished by swimming in the ocean!



Wash your training gear - After every class and on the highest possible temperature that doesn't ruining the cloth. Washing it with antiseptics will not only kill the bacteria but also remove a lot of the smell.
Washing rashguards with prints on 40 degrees Celsius will probably destroy the print, but you should consider it anyway or maybe get another rashguard.   

Get antibiotics and stay on them – If get infected make sure to make your doctor prescribe some antibiotics instead of lotion or similar. The antibiotics will effectively kill all the impetigo and will not miss anything, as you may do with lotion.
Supplementing the antibiotics with lotion will make those wounds go away fasters, but it is important that you stay on the antibiotics for at least as long as prescribed or longer if needed.  If you don’t you might still risk infecting your training partners and even make the impetigo bacteria resistant.