A research team, led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, examined 383 children with Staphylococcus aureus infections that required incision and drainage. The median age of the children was 3 years, and they also had colonization of staph in their nostrils or on their skin.
Around 93 percent of the children were given antibiotics in addition to undergoing incision and drainage treatment. Researchers evaluated the children for presence of bacteria and reinfection several times over a year.
Researchers found 50 percent of the children who received antibiotics had no signs of staph living on their skin or in their nostrils one month after the initial infection. But, three-fourths of children who did not receive antibiotics still had the bacteria on their skin.
The study also shows children who remained colonized with staph one month after the initial infection were about twice as likely to experience a recurrent infection as compared to those who no longer had staph.
Researchers focused on assessing the antibiotics clindamycin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. They found clindamycin was more effective at eliminating staph colonization and preventing recurrence.
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