Impetigo Prevention: Hygiene, Wound Care, and Household Measures

Impetigo is a superficial bacterial skin infection (usually S. aureus, S. pyogenes) highly contagious by direct contact.

Prevention Strategies

1. Hand hygiene: Frequent soap‑and‑water washing; alcohol sanitizer if hands not visibly soiled.
2. Skin integrity: Moisturize dry skin; treat eczema promptly (broken skin invites infection).
3. Wound care: Clean cuts/scrapes with soap/water; apply antibiotic ointment; cover with bandage.
4. No sharing: Towels, razors, clothing, bedding with infected person.
5. Laundry: Hot water wash, high heat dry for infected person’s items.
6. Nail care: Keep nails short, clean.
7. Environmental: Clean high‑touch surfaces; avoid communal pools/gyms if active lesions.
8. Prompt treatment: Topical mupirocin/retapamulin for limited lesions; oral antibiotics for extensive disease. Exclude from school/daycare until 24 hrs on antibiotics.

Recurrent impetigo warrants evaluation for nasal S. aureus carriage (decolonization with mupirocin intranasal).