These basic symptoms are redness, inflammation or swelling, oozing of pus from the wound, and in more advanced cases pain and fever. Knowing if a person has had a similar infection in the past also contributes valuable information to the diagnosis process.

Determining if the infection is MRSA or in other words whether the infection is resistant to certain antibiotics requires in depth laboratory testing. This testing requires the sampling of blood samples and also fluid or pus samples that are taken directly from the infected area. These samples are then cultured or in other words placed under favorable conditions for the bacterium to grow so that it can be properly identified. From these samples, a proper skin infection diagnosis can be made so that either standard antibiotics are prescribed by the physician or more powerful antibiotics are prescribed if the infection was determined as being MRSA.

Culture tests can take up to two days for results and this can be problematic where results are required faster. New tests that look at DNA are becoming more popular and will allow for the faster diagnosis of a staph infection.

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