Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus has been thought to play the major role in eczema, but other staphylococci, including Staphylococcus epidermidis, all of which are normal flora on everyone’s skin, also play major roles. S. epidermidis and other staphylococci become pathogenic when they make biofilms. These biofilms, produced when the organisms are exposed to salt and water in sweat, protect the bacterial colonies. They also make these once-sensitive organisms multidrug resistant. The two parameters, biofilm production and multidrug resistance, are very closely aligned, making these staphylococci exceedingly difficult to kill when they assume a pathogenic role. We have found biofilm production and multidrug resistance in all the species we have recovered. The pathogenic role of the staphylococcal species producing biofilms is to form an occlusion in the eccrine sweat duct. This initiates a series of events that creates itching, and the prototypical rash then ensues.
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References
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Allen, H.B. (2015). Microbiology. In: The Etiology of Atopic Dermatitis. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6545-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6545-3_2
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