use of bleach baths to decrease recurrent skin infections
1000 healthy kids aged 3 months to 18 yrs with probable community-associated staph aureus skin/soft tissue (SSTI) or invasive infection randomized to daily hygiene vs that with 2x/week bleach baths for 3 months (see skin infections beach bath clin ID 2014 in dropbox, or DOI: 10.1093/cid/cit764). basically, --recurrence of SSTI common: about 50% --bleach bath consisted of adding 5ml of bleach (regular bleach, 6.0% hypochlorite) to every gallon of bath water, and bathing in that for 15 min 2x/week, for 3 months. 12-month followup. dilute bleach solutions known to kill staph. --colonization cultures were obtained from nares, pharynx, groin. 56% were colonized with s. aureus at minimum of 1 site (most common = groin in 38%, nares 22%, throat 17%). MRSA (methicillin-resistant) more common in groin and throat, MSSA (methicillin-sensitive) in nose. more colonization in younger ages, esp <2yo --rate of "medically-attended" recurrent infection: 1...