Skin Infections
of the Finger

Serious skin infections of the finger, caused by a particular type of staph infection, can very commonly turn dangerous, especially for diabetics.

There are many types of skin infections of the finger caused by the organism Staphylococcus aureus, often simply called staph. While there is a very common and usually mild infection around your fingers as a result of hangnails being infected through your own saliva. These usually go away on their own and can be minimized by resisting the temptation to bite off hangnails. It is the deep type of skin infections of the finger that can be a threat to life and limb.

Your susceptible extremities

Fingers are at particular risk from staph infections because hands are parts of our bodies that are most likely to interact with the world. They are also the most at risk of puncture wounds that can allow the penetration of the bacteria deep into the tissue of your hands.

Being extremities, your hands and fingers are the furthest away from your heart with the least blood flow, slowing immune response.

Toes are far less commonly infected in modern times because of the widespread use of shoes, but in places where bare feet do often come in contact with the ground, the same precautions apply. It can be even more critical because of the irritation of walking around on an infection and pushing it deeper into the body. Diabetics are particularly susceptible to life-threatening infection from staph infections of the extremities and so, must very carefully trim their nails.

Deeper infections

Should you find the skin beneath your fingerprint (or pad) of your finger to be swelling for no apparent reason, you should immediately consider medical treatment. Such infections do tend to stay localized, but are often very deep and can sometimes spread through the blood to cause great damage. While very often caught from skin-to-skin contact a staph infection can come from plant material (especially if it’s moist) or other parts of your own skin.

Those who suspect they have deep skin infections of the finger should get some reading material together and prepare to spend some time in the emergency room. You should be treated immediately, because the longer such an infection is allowed to gain strength, the longer it will take to heal. Untreated infections of this sort can very easily end in amputation or even death from a systemic infection that reaches the heart.

Tamanu oil has cured even gangrenous infections of the extremities (continuous use of compresses soaked in tamanu oil). It may be used under medical supervision even in cases of skin infections of the finger.