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What does poison ivy look like




poison ivy is a rash that comes when you touch the poison ivy plant. I am sure you've had the experience before, probably as a kid, when you played with your kids outside. The poison ivy plant is green and has big, thick hairy leaves. I mean, they are not huge like those of a water lilly but they are not tiny either.

I described the plant, just so that you can identify it in your mind, but we'll not talk about the plant very much anymore. Instead we'll focus on the rash that I've mentioned before, which, incidentally, has the exact same name.



So, what does poison ivy look like?
In most cases, when you have the rash, you'll not notice any swelling or raising at all. Your skin will get a little red where the contact with the plant was made and that's about it. In some, rare cases, you'll notice little bubbles forming with a bit of a discharge, which, even though they look a little scarry are pretty harmless.

When you first touch poison ivy, it burns a lot, although it's not unbearable. Then your skin gets a little red and then it itches for some time. You don't want to scratch that, obviously, but unless you're allergic to it, nothing serious will happen.

How to treat poison ivy?The first thing you have to do is make sure you don't scratch it, as I mentioned above. That's the very first step. Then, a good idea is to take some rubbing alcohol and clean your skin off before the substance that causes the rash, which is called urushiol, by the way, gets into your skin. You have approximately ten minutes to do that.

Then, rinse the skin off well, remembering to use cold water for this instead of hot. If you use hot water, you'll make it a little easier for urushiol to enter your skin pores as warm water opens them up.

Washing the clothes is the very next step to take. See, when you get in contact with poison ivy, that nasty urushiol will stay on your clothes and even if you get back home, you can still get new rashes because of that. Just toss your clothes in the wash and you'll be fine.

Seeing a doctor would also be useful just to make sure that what looks like a normal ivy rash is not anything serious. If it is just poison ivy, then the last thing you could try is waiting it out. It will pass pretty soon.

Poison ivy can be really annoying. It burns and itches, but if you follow the tips above, you'll be ok.

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What Does Impetigo Look Like?





Impetigo
A staphylococcus bacterium is to blame for the development of Impetigo. The outer layer of the skin gets infected and children are most likely to develop this infection on their skin.  A small scratch may appear at affected place followed by small blisters. A yellow fluid starts discharging from these small blisters.  The top portion of these blisters may become hard and production of blisters is increased in different areas of body.
If a child starts scratching his blisters then bacterium gets an opportunity to increase its activity on other parts of body. Owing to contagious nature of impetigo young children are prohibited to touch or scratch their blisters. If you see these symptoms in your child then, you should visit a physician as soon as possible. A physician uses a cotton swab in order to diagnose Impetigo. Swelling, intense feeling of pain and weakness are normal things which may be seen in a child who has got impetigo. Sometimes chicken pox is followed by impetigo and the chances that your child gets this infection are increased during summers.

Steps to stop developing impetigoFollowing are those methods that can be followed if you notice the symptoms of impetigo in your child:

• Good hygiene is an effective remedy for the treatment of impetigo. Children should be taught the benefits of good hygiene and in case they share their things like towels, clothes they should be discouraged.

• Antibiotic ointment can also help reduce the problem of impetigo.

So, these methods will surely help in completely removing the problem of impetigo.

Summary
Children are at high risk of developing impetigo but through proper hygiene and antibiotic medicines this infection can be removed.


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What Does Syphilis Look Like?


Syphilis is one of those diseases that everyone used to be scared of. It can be deadly if not cured properly and is extremely contagious.

The interesting thing about this disease is that even though it is extremely annoying and can lead to death, if treated early is very easy to cure. The problem is that it's hard to spot it at first as it's almost asymptomatic. No itching, no rashes (until later stages), no swelling, no nothing.

So, how do you spot it?

First of all, it is very important to know that syphilis is only transmitted through sexual contact. You can't get it from sharing food, a fork or clothes with someone who has it, so the best way to prevent it is through having a proper sex life. If your partner does not have syphilis, you won't get it.

If you do have incidental sex, just go see a doctor and he'll take care of the problem for you, but on with the spotting.


As I mentioned before, syphilis does not cause any discomfort at all in its early stages. Although you might see some lesions on the areas of contact (penis or vagina), they tend to heal spontaneously which is why people don't go see a doctor at this stage. In the second stage of syphilis, you'll be able to notice rashes on your feet or your hands. You may see the rash on the torso or your face.

In the last stage of syphilis you may see knots forming in the joints which look like big bumps under your skin.

Although we have talked a bit about prevention already, I would like to talk about the one thing that prevents Syphilis from spreading and even cures it completely.

That one thing, oddly enough is penicillin G also known as Benzylpenicillin. This medication is fairly common and really easy to administer, but it only works if you apply it in a very easy stage of the disease. Oftentimes, one dose is enough.

It really amazed me when I realized that such a simple drug can take care of this huge problem.

In this article we talked about what Syphilis looks like and how to prevent it. Generally speaking, if you go see a doctor early enough, you should not have a problem with it as it's not hard to treat.
Moreover as long as you pay attention who you sleep with, you should be fine as well. Having a permanent sexual partner (like your husband or wife) is a tremendous prevention tool for syphilis.

Again, I hope that this article was helpful to you. Remember that although this disease is pretty nasty, due to the fact that medicine has advanced so much, it's perfectly curable.

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