People at risk

L’impetigo is a pathology that appears especially in children under 10, in particular from their setting in community (nursery, school, etc.).

Newborns and infants are also affected by impetigo because they are more very fragile.

Risk factors

For impetigo in adults, l’alcoholism and the substance addiction, diabetes and immune deficiencies (treatment with cortisone or other immunosuppressants, AIDS / HIV, etc.) are likely to cause ecthyma-type complications, especially in the lower limbs, where impetigo recovers of a blackish crust which tends to expand. Ecthyma tends to be complicated by infections of the tissues located under the skin: it acts of infectious cellulitis (infection of the subcutaneous layers). The infection can also tend to spread along the lymphatic channels: it is lymphangitis (= red inflammatory trail that goes up the leg upwards).