I have had staph infections twice. The first time I didn’t know what it was and waited almost too long (I thought I had sprained my thumb - red, swollen, hurt). I was on I.V. antibiotics for three days.
The second time I figured it out quickly and he gave me some pills and sent me on my way. I suppose these bugs are all a bit different, but the doc said the staph bug is on your skin all the time. Both times I just had dried, cracking skin - perhaps some fine scratches, but had been working outside in the dirt, so I’m thinking it was something in the dirt (two very different geographical locations).
Some startling posts.
I make a point when I every once in a while unexpectedly find any sort of small seemingly insignificant pimple type anything, to *always* apply a drop of iodine tincture. Might not do anything, but that’s that.
Read somewhere, a case where that was the first sign when someone encountered it just before it suddenly went out of control, so I figure just pays to take that simple precaution.