Preventing MRSA at home and protecting your household
MRSA moves through households the same way it moves through gyms and hospitals — on skin, on wounds and on shared objects. A short list of unglamorous habits stops it.
The five basics
- Cover every wound with a clean dry dressing until it is fully healed. Change dressings promptly if they become wet or soiled.
- Wash your hands with soap and water — or use alcohol gel — after any wound care, before eating, and before touching shared surfaces.
- Don't share personal items. Towels, razors, bar soap, deodorant sticks, clothing and bedding all carry the bacteria between people.
- Launder hot, dry hot. Wash affected clothing, towels and bedding on the hottest cycle the fabric will take and tumble-dry thoroughly.
- Wipe high-touch surfaces daily — door handles, taps, phones, remote controls, keyboards — with a household disinfectant.
After known exposure
If you have been in close contact with someone who has an active MRSA infection, you don't need testing unless you develop symptoms. Wash any area of skin that touched theirs with soap and water, and watch for new pimples, boils or red painful lumps over the next 1–10 days. See a doctor early if lesions grow quickly or become tender.
If infections keep coming back
Recurrent household MRSA is a strong reason to ask about decolonisation. The standard regimen is mupirocin 2% nasal ointment twice daily plus a chlorhexidine body wash daily for 5–10 days. Some clinicians treat the whole household simultaneously to break the cycle. See our page on why MRSA comes back for the full protocol.
Related in prevention
Back to the prevention hub, or read about preventing MRSA in hospitals, sports and during intimate contact.