Information for the public
Infections
Sometimes atopic eczema becomes infected. Your healthcare professional should tell you how to recognise this. Things to look for include weeping, crusts, blisters, atopic eczema that does not get better with treatment, and your child having a fever or feeling ill. A number of things can cause infections; the virus that causes cold sores can cause particularly severe infections that can affect large areas – this is known as eczema herpeticum. Your healthcare professional should give you a written plan of what to do if your child's eczema does become infected.
Infected eczema can be treated with medicines given by mouth or with treatments that are applied directly to the skin, depending on the type of infection.
Open containers of skin treatments such as emollients can become contaminated, so you should throw them away once an infection has cleared and get new supplies.