Can Urgent Care diagnose staph infection?

While these bacteria can be harmless, they can also cause major issues if left unchecked. Our team at Integrity Urgent Care can help identify staph infections and provide you with a treatment plan to keep it in check.

Should I go to urgent care for a staph infection?

If your skin infection is caused by staph or strep, you may need urgent care. These bacteria can quickly get out of control and potentially lead to sepsis, which can be fatal if not treated with antibiotics.

Where to go if you think you have a staph infection?

If you have symptoms of a staph infection, contact your healthcare provider for diagnosis and treatment. See your provider if you or your child has an area of skin that is blistered, irritated or red, especially if there's also a fever. Only healthcare providers can diagnose and treat a staph infection.

How can a doctor tell if you have a staph infection?

Most often, providers diagnose staph infections by checking blood, urine, skin, infected material or nasal secretions for signs of the bacteria. Additional tests can help your provider choose the antibiotic that will work best against the bacteria.

Do you need to see a doctor for a staph infection?

For example, with a skin infection you may have a boil or a painful rash called impetigo. With a serious infection, such as toxic shock syndrome, you may have a high fever, nausea and vomiting, and a sunburn-like rash. The only way to know for sure if you have a staph infection is by seeing a health care provider.

How Can a Staph or a MRSA Infection be Treated?

When should you get a staph infection checked?

Antibiotic-resistant staph infections are dangerous and potentially life-threatening. Call your doctor if your possible staph infection is accompanied by a fever, intense pain or redness, or red marks radiating from the wound.

Can staph heal without antibiotics?

Yes. Many staph skin infections may be treated by draining the abscess or boil and may not require antibiotics. Drainage of skin boils or abscesses should only be done by a healthcare provider.

What does early stage staph infection look like?

Staph skin infections, including MRSA , generally start as swollen, painful red bumps that might look like pimples or spider bites. The affected area might be: Warm to the touch. Full of pus or other drainage.

Do you feel sick with staph infection?

Severe flu-like symptoms – High fever, muscle aches, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, vomiting are all symptoms associated with Staph. If staph enters the blood stream you may develop toxic shock syndrome or bacteremia.

What happens if you let staph go untreated?

Staph can cause serious infections if it gets into the blood and can lead to sepsis or death. Staph is either methicillin-resistant staph (MRSA) or methicillin-susceptible staph (MSSA). Staph can spread in and between hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and in communities.

How quickly does staph infection need to be treated?

Food poisoning staph will usually pass within 24–48 hours, but it may take 3 days or longer to feel well. A staph infection at the surface of the skin may heal with just a few days of treatment. However, if a large sore or wound has developed, it may require several weeks of treatment or longer.

Should you quarantine with a staph infection?

As long as a staph infection is active, it is contagious. Most staph infections can be cured with antibiotics, and infections are no longer contagious about 24 to 48 hours after appropriate antibiotic treatment has started.

When is a staph infection an emergency?

Other serious cases of skin infections include staph infections, which can be life threatening if they make their way into the bones, lungs, joints, heart or the bloodstream. They are thus important to be treated in the ER as soon as possible before they spread into the said parts of the body.

Can urgent care handle MRSA?

If you are experiencing the symptoms of MRSA, don't wait to see a medical professional. FastMed is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and you don't need an appointment to be seen. With multiple locations right in your neighborhood, FastMed makes it easy for you to receive the treatment you need when you need it most.

How hard is it to get rid of a staph infection?

Treatment usually involves antibiotics and cleaning of the infected area. However, some staph infections no longer respond, or become resistant, to common antibiotics. To treat antibiotic-resistant staph infections, health care providers may need to use antibiotics that can cause more side effects.

Should I go to urgent care if I think I have MRSA?

Seek emergency medical treatment at the first sign of a MRSA infection. You may notice these symptoms after a break in your skin from a cut, scrape or surgical incision. MRSA is a communicable disease, meaning it is spread from one person to another.

How long does staph last untreated?

How long it takes for a staph skin infection to heal depends on the type of infection and whether it's treated. A boil, for example, may take 10 to 20 days to heal without treatment, but treatment may speed up the healing process.

What are the stages of staphylococcus?

Using this system, S. aureus biofilm development has been shown to proceed through a five-stage developmental process including: 1) attachment, 2) multiplication, 3) exodus, 4) maturation, and 5) dispersal (Figure 1) (Moormeier et al., 2014).

Can a minor staph infection go away on its own?

Some skin staph infections, such as cellulitis or infected wounds, may also cause fevers. Will a staph infection go away on its own? Some minor skin infections will heal on their own with no drug treatment.

What home remedy kills staph?

Alternative Remedies Some people apply substances with reported antimicrobial properties, such as tea tree oil, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, eucalyptus essential oil, oregano essential oil, and others to skin infections to help them heal.

How does a staph infection start?

The infection often begins with a little cut, which gets infected with bacteria. This can look like honey-yellow crusting on the skin. These staph infections range from a simple boil to antibiotic-resistant infections to flesh-eating infections.

Can I use hydrogen peroxide on a staph infection?

Hydrogen peroxide and sodium hypochlorite disinfectants are more effective against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms than quaternary ammonium compounds.

Can you have a staph infection without a fever?

There's usually no fever involved with staph when it's contracted through food. Symptoms manifest within hours of ingesting the contaminated food, and they typically disappear quickly as well. It's important to seek medical treatment for your child as soon as possible if you think they have a staph infection.

How quickly does staph infection spread?

This is because many staph infections arise from bacteria that are already present on the skin and/or mucous membranes. However, for most staph infections, the incubation period commonly ranges from about four to 10 days.

Can urgent care treat infections?

Most infections can be treated easily at an urgent care clinic. But if you're experiencing any of the following symptoms with your infection, you should go to the ER: Loss of vision.