Who is at risk for contracting impetigo?
Anyone can get impetigo, but it is most commonly found in children, probably because they so often have cuts, scrapes, insect bites, or other minor injuries on their skin from playing outdoors. People living or working in crowded conditions, such as schools, daycare facilities, and military bases, are also at higher risk of being infected through contact with another person who already has the infection or, less commonly, through contact with clothing, towels, or bedding contaminated by discharge from impetigo lesions. Family members of a person who already has impetigo are similarly at risk of contagion from direct contact with discharge from the lesions. Impetigo is highly contagious. Whenever one person has impetigo, precautions must be taken to prevent it from spreading to others.
