Impetigo (Infected Sores)

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Main Symptoms

• Sores smaller than 1 inch in diameter.
• Often covered by a soft, yellow-brown scab or crust.
• Scabs may intermittently drain pus.
• Begin as small red bumps which rapidly change to cloudy blisters, then pimples, and finally open sores which weep.
• Increases in size (any sore or wound that grows and doesn't heal).
• Impetigo often spreads and increases in number from scratching.

Cause

• Superficial bacterial infections of small breaks in the skin.

See More Appropriate Topic (instead of this one) If

• It's in a wound, see WOUND INFECTION.
• Doesn't look like impetigo, see RASHES, LOCALIZED AND CAUSE UNKNOWN.