Eczema - Is my Red Skin Syndrome an infection?

Eczema – Is my Red Skin Syndrome an infection?

This blog is an expanded response to several emails in the “Comments” section of our website regarding Dr. Aron’s and others asserting that, “All the red skin people have staphylococcus (staph) bacterial infections as the cause of their redness and that bathing in a bleach bath will solve all problems.”

Differing strains of staphylococcus bacteria (staph) normally live on the skin. Staph albus does not invade the skin causing infection, Staph aureus can.

Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.

T.H. Huxley

Often cultures of cool, unbroken, intact skin can harbor staph, but that does not mean that the staph is causing widespread redness in RSS. If the redness were caused by staph these patients would also be severely ill with toxemia and elevated temperature.

RSS patients have an intact immune system and the staph whether cultured or perceived is not the culprit. So, the repeated liberal use of oral antibiotics is to be frowned upon.

Further, bleach can kill any bacteria in a laboratory but is of little value in treating RSS patients because bacteria are not responsible. I have seen hundreds of patients who followed this flawed advice to absolutely no avail.

By Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD|2021-10-19T03:16:56-07:00August 13th, 2015|Red Skin Syndrome Causes, RSS The Disease, What Is Eczema|Comments Off

About the Author: Dr Marvin Rapaport, MD

In 1978 I initiated and set up the contact and photo dermatitis clinic at UCLA. There was a need to evaluate a large group of patients who exhibited severe eczematoid rashes, especially on the face. Patients were referred from all over Southern California. All patients underwent a lengthy history and examination. Further evaluations included blood studies, allergy patch testing, special sunlight (photo) testing and skin biopsies. From the start it was apparent that most patients experienced a mild dermatitis on various parts of the body that progressively worsened. Their histories always included numerous doctor visits, multiple physicians, and therapy consisting of an increasing amount of corticosteroids. My testing failed to reveal any specific culprit chemicals, cosmetics, perfumes, workplace or recreational exposures. It became increasingly clear that the physician’s therapy, the corticosteroids, was invariably causing the problem. I wrote 7 scientific articles that were published in the most august peer-reviewed dermatologic journals and I gave many lectures at various dermatology meetings. To this day an unfortunate reluctance exists on the part of most physicians to accept this simple concept.