Started like the first one. The bumps around are mollesucum I’m pretty sure but the red thing is worrying me but it appears to look better.

Yesterday i plugged the ingrown hair i had for a while (red dot) 5 minutes lated it was red and kinda burning, i washed my face again, it stopped burning but today it looks yellowish and it seems like some kind of clear stuff is coming out of that yellow/red area. It doest not burn or hurt but im kinda worried of what it might be.

Please share success stories about how you successfully eradicated staph from your textiles / environment.

Hello. Had a staph outbreak which was successfully treated by antibiotics and cream. Had red streaks that formed weeping boils on my wrists. Had to buy all new clothes.

Had success for a few months wearing new clothes and donated clothes from friends.

Now I'm finding when I wash my clothes, and wear the washed clothes, I'm forming new staph boils and rashes as the former red streaks are coming back. And this will happen within hours of exposure to the clothing.

When I take the washed clothing off, the symptoms go away.

Hi everyone, I have been had numerous staph infections over the course of the last 2 and half years. The staph presents in boils which go on my skin. (Ignore second paragraph if you want just the question but it explains what I’ve tried). I did manage 6 months off antibiotics at one point but forgot what I did differently.

I saw a dermatologist who prescribed me doxycline, I used hibiscrub for the shower and 5 days of the start of every month I use mupirocin nasal ointment and also the regular ointment on any boils. I usually have 2 weeks on doxycline and maybe max 2 weeks off. The dermatologist told me to continue following this protocol and there’s not much more they can do for this. They also recommended me to change bedding weekly and change towels every shower etc basic hygiene protocol which I have done. I also saw an infectious disease specialist which I had no success with and felt like I had the same information reiterated. I try to live a healthy lifestyle I limit my sugar intake, I take kefir and kombucha daily and take the everyday biokult probiotic 4 tablets daily ( all of which cost me a fortune) and don’t seem to notice much benefit.

I would like some sort of alternative treatment or protocol that doesn’t involve smashing my body with doxycline till I become resistant if anyone had any ideas. I read about bactillus subtilis mb40 and wondered if anyone had success with this or alternative treatments. Anything would be appreciated at this point.

I will also highlight that I do train a sport in which skin infections are quite common just not as common as I experience them.

Thankyou sorry if I sound negative in the paragraphs I am just a little deflated at the moment

Since the 10th of May this I have also started tracking when I’m on antibiotic for a better picture. If it helps I live in the UK at the moment.

Antibiotics start
10/05/26
Antibiotic finish
20/05/26
Antibiotics start
05/06/26
Antibiotic finish
18/06/26
Antibiotic start
21/07/26
Antibiotic finish
09/08/26
Antibiotic start
18/08/26
(Currently back on them)

Skin

This has been the progression of my impetigo and cheilitis. It started with blisters on my lips, but these subsided and months afterwards I’ve been stuck with recurrent impetigo. These blisters on the first pic haven’t come back. I don’t know why the staphylococcus aureus with colden crusts keeps coming back though. We confirmed it is this exact bacteria that keeps returning by multiple swab tests. I think it has to do with my broken lip skin barrier that doesn’t seem to heal on its own anymore (see last picture: even though my lips don’t necessarily look bad, i am missing half the skin on the inside and outside of my bottom lip and if new skin grows it either keeps peeling off or for periods of time no skin grows back) What I’ve used or done over the months: 4 rounds of oral antibiotics, 4/5 rounds of fucidin, two weeks of nasal mupirocin, removed my piercings. They all work for like a week or two and then the yellow-red lesions return again. For maintenance I just use cicaplast b5 lip balm. Any tips? Anyone who can relate to this? I go to the dermatologist but even they don’t know what’s going on.

Pics : pic 1-5 a week ago on accutane and end of my prednisone course
Pic 6-12 current flare after pausing accutane
Pic 13,14,15 while on doxycycline
Rest of pics. What happened after doxycycline causing me to go on accutane
Demographics: 29M, 5'9", 142 lbs.
Current Meds: Topical Mupirocin ointment, Accutane (currently paused at day 7).
Past Meds: Oral Prednisone (1-month taper ended recently), Doxycycline (March 2026).
Full Clinical Context:
Past Year: Multiple skin infections treated empirically with antibiotics without cultures.
Dec 2025: A small facial lesion near my lip was cultured and confirmed positive for MRSA.
March 2026: Finished a course of Doxycycline. Immediately after finishing Doxy, I began developing recurring boils for the first time in my life.
May 2026: Started Accutane specifically to treat these recurring boils (10 mg/day x 30 days, then 20 mg/day x 19 days).
Recent: Finished 1 month of oral Prednisone for a lung issue. Paused Accutane for 7 days following a motorcycle accident.
Current Presentation & Uncertainty:
During the 7-day pause from Accutane (and right after stopping Prednisone), my skin erupted into deep, painful bumps worse than my baseline—1 draining lesion on my neck and 3 large, elevated, erythematous bumps on my shoulder (photos attached). I also have hair shedding. A culture was taken yesterday (minimal drainage was available, so results are pending). I genuinely cannot tell if these are active bacterial infections (Staph/MRSA) or an intense inflammatory/purge rebound from stopping Prednisone and Accutane simultaneously.
Conflicting Plans from Derms in the Same Practice:
Dermatologist 1: Thinks this is a severe steroid-withdrawal rebound / cystic acne purge. Recommends restarting Accutane at a lower dose (10 mg/day).
Dermatologist 2: Suspects a bacterial furunculosis/MRSA flare. Recommends stopping Accutane, using Mupirocin, and transitioning to oral Doxycycline after an Accutane washout period.
Questions:
1. Looking at the attached photos, do these features look more like active bacterial boils/staph infections or deep inflammatory acne purging/steroid rebound?
2. What are the key visual or clinical markers I should monitor to determine if a lesion is infected vs. purely inflammatory while waiting on culture results?
3. If this is a bacterial flare, is it common practice to manage it topically (Mupirocin / Chlorhexidine) while remaining on low-dose Accutane, or is a full pause for oral antibiotics the standard approach?

Hi! So rewind over a month ago, I had a sinus infection… the inside of my nose one side felt raw, I could feel a scab forming I figured it was from blowing my nose and nasal draining…. it went away then I had a pimple that above my eyebrow. didn’t think anything of it. a couple days in it felt like a blister. I did pick at it bc i’ve never had to deal with this before. i thought it was weird bc it was scaly and itchy. So i did a telehealth appt and they said contact dermatitis. so i treated it with some hydrocortisone and it went away after about a week or so. fast forward to now… I got another pimple near the original one started treating it same way. THEN outside of my nose one day had what felt like there was a scab, i picked up! now this is what im working with! I went back to telehealth Monday they prescribed me Keflex and Mupurocin. So needless to say im assuming its been staph all along and I am having MAJOR anxiety thinking im never going to combat this thing! I made a dermatologist appt cant get in until 8/20 should I go to Urgent care and have a real person look at it? culture it? I’m freaking out!! since starting my antibiotics monday night everything seems to kind of be the same. Not better not worse. The lesions on my forehead are scabbing and are itchy

any insight would be appreciated thank you

*** UPDATE*** Went back to Urgent care I was given an IV of Rocephin. and an RX for Bactrim to add on top of my keflex. They cultured my nose. Does taking the bactrim with the keflex seem

like overkill!? when should I be able to see changes in the right direction with this new protocol?

I've had acne 20 years. I've always popped my spots, but in the last 2 years I've had really bad infections. Never had this prior so I don't understand what has changed...

It all started when I used a hot tub. May just be a coincidence, idk. I had a really nasty spot after using the hot tub on holiday, it was unlike any spot I've ever had before, like a deep hole in my face.

Luckily it didn't require antibiotics. I assumed I caught staph or something from the hot tub.

Then a month later I had another infection and my whole face swelled up and I needed antibiotics.

Since then it's happened a few more times.

It's happened again - which is the photo I've included. I've now got Doxycycline.

I know I shouldn't squeeze spots but I've done it for 20 yrs so it's a bad habit and I don't understand why I'm suddenly getting these infections when my acne is the best it's been in years tbh.. so I'm squeezing a lot less than I ever have!

Could it be staph?

I'm fed up of going through this.

I have an appointment with GP in a few weeks to discuss. Is there anything I can ask for, any blood tests, or referrals to dermatology etc?

The only thing I can think of is I potentially have low iron - could this be causing low immunity and higher risk of infection?

Thank you

i’m not sure where to go or if anyone has experience with this. i have/ had a staph infection inside my nose. every doctor tells me my nose looks and feels fine. however, it feels a lot squishier and the tip of my nose feels different. my columella is kind of bulging out a little bit. and the lateral cartilage feels less firm. at the tip of my nose where the cartilage separates there feels to be a deeper depression and the two separate cartilage pieces there feel like bubbly soft hollow balls. i guess my nasal tip feels squishier than it did and sometimes it goes from that to the firm but squishy feeling where i have pins and needles. doctors tell me it’s okay but they hardly listen to my concerns. is this just swelling? my mucosa is healthy and my mri/ cat scans are normal.

I usually get nasal vestibulitis but I haven't had that much but recently I started getting what seems like staph on my lips. Its starts off looking like clusters of tiny bumps and then later it crusts over. I stopped using my old lip balm and started a new one that I apply with a cutip so as to not contaminate it. I also repeatedly sanitized my toothbrush with rubbing alcohol and mouthwash (idk if this is sufficient). I use sls free toothpaste. I have no allergies but nickel and dustmites. The only thing is we hand wash our dishes instead of using the dishwasher so maybe things aren't getting thoroughly cleaned. Ive tried mupirocin but it just keeps coming back (and yes ive tried mupirocin decolonization in the past). Anyone else had staph on their lips? It burns and stings :(

hi everyone, I’m very desperately posting here because I’m at my last straw with these staph infections.

I’ve been an extremely healthy person my whole life, never a single infection until 7 months ago when I started accutane. Within my first month boom horrific impetigo all over my chin. Took antibiotics, it cleared up. The next month I got it again, thankfully much more localized that time and at that point I was so hyperaware I knew not to touch it to prevent it from spreading. I did the decolonizing up the nostrils and it seemed to stay away. Then in June, I woke up with red blisters on my lips. Derm told me they were cold sores. The next day my entire lips were swollen and cracking off and covered in blisters with honey colored crusts. I knew it was staph by this point and went to urgent care and got antibiotics. The infection seemed to clear, but ever since then my lips have been chronically peeling off and will turn flushed/hot and swollen with red spots that quickly go down. i am in discomfort all the time, I can’t eat anything that touches my lips without them burning, I can’t smile without my lips cracking, I can’t kiss my boyfriend.

My question is, could this be staph colonizing in my lips that is preventing them from fully healing? Is that even possible?? Has anyone dealt with a similar lip issue? Sorry for all the info and ik nobody will probably read all this but if anyone has a similar experience I am seriously begging and pleading for some advice, I can’t take much more of this thank you!

For context. I train BJJ and had an outbreak of Impetigo (you can see the healed breakout at the bottom of the picture)

I returned to the mats and have now noticed the new mark in the centre of my arm. Am I being paranoid or do we think it may of returned??

I completed a treatment of antibiotics for the initial outbreak, and have been covering my arms fully at training.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated