Suggest Treatment For Recurrent Folliculitis

Posted on Fri, 19 Sep 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 19 Sep 2014 Answered on

Sat, 11 Oct 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : I had a few small bumps that turned into whiteheads show up in random places last month ( 4 or 5 on my leg, a few on my stomach, 1 or 2 on my arm) My doctor mentioned MRSA, but possibly folliculitis. He placed me on 10 days of antibiotics. I finished the bottle about a week ago and today, I noticed a new small red whitehead. They are sore and red, like little pimples, with a white head. What is going on?

Answered by Dr. Johny Chacko (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Folliculitis

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Welcome to healthcare magic,
From your description it seems like boils/ folliculitis. They are bacterial infection of hair follicle. You have a feature to upload the images by yourself at the right side of the query page, please utilize that so that I can assess the lesions better. You can also send the image as attachment to YYYY@YYYY , with the subject as 'Attn: Dr. Johny Chacko'.

You should get your sugars checked as folliculitis is common in diabetics. Sometimes the bacteria will be resistant to sulfa/trimethoprim. I recommend a pus culture an sensitivity test from the boil so that we will have an idea about the bacteria and what medicine works.
Avoid applying paraffin based or mineral oils on the body as moisturizer, sometimes this can cause folliculitis. Do not take scrub bath, razor shaving of body hair etc as trauma can cause new lesions.
You will require a course of another antibiotics after taking pus for culture and sensitivity for which you need to consult your doctor.
Hope this helped,
Take care.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar