re: folliculitis-std?

[tc85]

last year, i was treated for a upper res. infection...cleared up with antibiotics (z-pac)...4/5 days after last dose of z-pac diagnosed with folliculitis.

two weeks ago, same thing happened as above

question is, why am i getting folliculitis, afterwards?  Is it the antibiotic?  

It should be known the first time it happened, they gave me erythromycin.  I have not gone to my GP the second time around.

just a little nervous what i read about folliculitis...like std's, diabetes...etc, ...any help greatly appreciated

[london08]

Well that is just a guess based on the fact that antibiotic usage can lead to overgrowth of bacteria in other regions of the body that would normally be present along with many other species all fighting for space and nutrients and therefore limiting each other's growth. Kill some and it leaves space for others to proliferate but this would normally occur in a matter of days after antibiotic treatment.

[tc85]

Thanks...very weird on why the folliculitis pops up a few days after using a antitbiotic for another infection???

[london08]

As far as I remember from my lectures folliculitis is commonly caused by overgrowth of staphylococcus aureus bacteria which is present on the skin of alot of people. This is normally treated with flucloxacillin. I've not heard of erithromycin use for upper respiratory tract infection so I wouldn't like to speculate on why this could have caused folliculitis other than the two infections would have been very close together time-wise if they were related or linked to the antibiotic.