A 15-year-old girl admitted to the hospital with a 2-day history of pharyngitis and vaginitis associated with vomiting and watery diarrhea. She was febrile and hypotensive on admission, with a diffuse erythematous rash over her entire body. Laboratory tests were consistent with acidosis, oliguria, and disseminated intravascular coagulation with severe thrombocytopenia. Her chest radiograph showed bilateral infiltrates suggestive of "shock lung." (edema, impaired perfusion, and reduction in alveolar space so that the alveoli collapse). She was admitted to the hospital intensive care unit where she was stabilized, and she improved gradually over a 17-day period. On the third day, fine desquamation started on her face, trunk, and extremities and progressed to peeling of the palms and soles by the 14th day.

Contact with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus is more common than many people imagine. Although in extreme cases it can lead to widespread infection, or “sepsis” the microorganism is one of the most common in human skin and most often causes simple, treatable antibiotic problems. However, infection with this bacterium can evolve very rapidly, causing problems similar to the 15-year-old girl exposed in the question, such as fever, hypotension, and diffuse erythematous eruption all over her body. The ideal is to treat this infection with the use of antibiotics, among them Methicillin has shown good results in fighting these bacteria.

During the treatment of this infection it is common for the patient to have peeling of hair from various parts of the body, when this occurs, the ideal to be done is to isolate the patient and start an exfoliation to prevent a secondary infection that would impair the treatment.