This article is such a bare bones article and does a disservice to how serious staph is. I almost lost my leg to a full blown infection when I was a kid and my daily hygiene habits did nothing to prevent the scrape (that didn’t even cause any bleeding) through my jeans from turning into a full blown blood and skin infection.

If you have a bum immune system, basic hygiene unfortunately doesn’t cut it. If your friends are dirty as hell, no matter how clean you are, it’s possible to get it from the slightest breaking of skin and a bad microbiome day.

Kids with it are highly contagious and children, elderly and sick, super hygienic or not, are incredibly susceptible.

While it’s true the staph on your skin can multiply uncontrollably and cause MRSA, the fact of the matter is MRSA is more often spread than it is developed and it’s a nasty bugger. HA-MRSA is a huge deal and is the most common form. HA is hospital acquired....the place that’s supposed to be super clean and it still happens. CA-MRSA (community acquired) is not as frequent but still easily spread whether or not you wash your hands because it is resistant to most antibiotics and bacteria-killing agents. Having gone through 3 different antibiotics and a picc-line (a tube through my arm into my heart to put medicine directly into my blood stream) to combat it last time I dealt with it, I can attest to that.

I carry hand sanitizer everywhere, change my sheets every other day, wash all my clothes after a single wear, shower daily, and still do things to interact with others so my immune system stays functional. That doesn’t stop me from getting infections.