Impetigo questions

[strawberry]

Friends coming over today and their 1 year old has impetigo. He has been on antibiotics for nearly 2 days. How infectious is it and what are the symptoms exactly? I understand it is quite a mild infection but my DS starts nursery next week and I would not like him to miss the first day thru' illness. Also would nursery exclude him anyway and for how long? Thanks

Its an opportunistic infection I think, so if your son has any cuts etc then make sure that there is no contact with the boy. Otherwise it should be OK - I think that the antibiotics usually start working after a couple of days. You could ring NHS direct if you're worried.

Impetigo is actually quite infectious-certainly dont let your DS touch the site of the other childs infection.
It causes an oozing rash which forms yellow crusts and generally affects an area such as around the nose or mouth, or behind the ears.
It can also cause a more generalised illness so the child feels unwell, as well as having the rash, especially if the rash is untreated.

Strawberry, This is very infectious. My brother-in-law had it on his hands and within 2 weeks my niece, nephew, sister and myself had caught it. The school and my work signed us off. It has to contact an open wound or graze but it can be passed onto anything that child/adult comes into contact with and so our doctor told us to bleach all towels, use different soap etc..... As you know this is impossible when the hands are involved and so the infection just kept going round and round. In the end we used gloves. The antibiotics did work fairly quickly and we were given fuciden cream. I would def say if in doubt keep them apart.