Hospitals, assisted living facilities, shelters, prisons, gyms, locker rooms, military residences, daycares, schools and other communal environments, especially those where skin to skin contact is common.

Bacteria living on our bodies can go from the skin’s surface to its interior from surgery incisions, eczema cracks, open cuts, and scrapes. Additionally, sharing contaminated personal items such as gym equipment, helmets, shin guards, yoga mats, wrestling or other gym mats, razors, towels, sheets, etc. allows the bacteria to spread to new hosts. It’s important to realize that while people who are hospitalized and suffering from other illnesses are most vulnerable to picking up these harmful bacteria, healthy people are also at risk.

Bacteria, viruses and fungi from our skin are highly transmissible, and outbreaks can be quite serious, but lucky for us, a well-studied skin decolonization procedure endorsed by Infectious Diseases Society of America prevents infection. That’s why doctors, whether advising pre-surgial patients or sports teams, rarely test for infection. Instead, they simply recommend the full protocol because decolonization helps reduce the risk of infection.  Before surgery or after a hospital stay, a doctor will advise their patient to do a five day course of bathing that target the hiding spots on the body that are known to be resevoirs of bacteria.  Sometimes, a single week of decolonization is recommended and sometimes the physician will prescribe up to a year of skin decolonization.  The cadence is usually a 5-day treatment cycle, a week off, another five-day treatment cycle, a week off. Football, wrestling, hockey, and other coaches can start the season with a team requirement of decolonizing the team’s skin.   

MRSA is known as one of the “superbugs”, which means it’s largely resistant to antibiotics. Some of the risks of MRSA include painful abscesses, blood infection, pneumonia, and sepsis which can lead to amputation or death. 

Walking patients through the steps of skin decolonization in the detail that’s required is time-consuming. It is rarely the primary reason for a medical visit and its importance is easily missed.  The time investment, whether it’s from a doctor or pre-op administrators, has financial implications. In fact, MRSA treatment, amounts to $10 Billion annually in the US alone. The benefit of the Topical Cleansing Kit is its art of simplicity inspires more people to comply with the full, academically proven skin decolonization protocol, which means fewer infections, fewer transmissions, and lower annual spending. In addition, the companion app opens up communications channels between doctor and patient which aids in compliance as well. So when we think of the impact the Topical Cleansing Kit will have on the healthcare industry, all we have to do is imagine the resources that could be diverted to other areas of medicine and the benefits become clear, for both the industry and public alike.