Antibiotics may help you feel better faster. They can also shorten the amount of time that you're contagious. Most people are no longer contagious after they've taken antibiotics for at least 24 hours.
Most staph infections can be cured with antibiotics, and infections are no longer contagious about 24 to 48 hours after appropriate antibiotic treatment has started.
As long as there are viable MRSA bacteria in or on an individual who is colonized with these bacteria or infected with the organisms, MRSA is contagious. Consequently, a person colonized with MRSA (one who has the organism normally present in or on the body) may be contagious for an indefinite period of time.
When you get infected, you typically start to show symptoms about 2 to 5 days after you were exposed to the bacteria. You can stay contagious for up to a month if you don't get treated. Antibiotics can prevent the infection from spreading. People who take antibiotics stop being contagious after about 24 hours.S
If you have begun taking antibiotics for bronchitis, you usually stop being contagious 24 hours after starting the medication. If you have a viral form of bronchitis, antibiotics will not work. You will be contagious for at least a few days and possibly for as long as a week.
If MRSA is in the lungs, it can be spread in tiny drops of liquid when a person coughs, sneezes or laughs. It can also be spread from objects that touch the mouth. If MRSA is on the skin, it can be spread through skin-to-skin contact with others, such as athletes playing football or wrestling.
Tonsillitis caused by a virus is often contagious for about 7 to 10 days. Untreated bacterial tonsillitis may be contagious for about 2 weeks. However, people with bacterial tonsillitis treated with antibiotics generally become non-contagious 24 hours after starting antibiotic treatment for strep throat.
C. difficile diarrhea may be treated with a course of antibiotics prescribed by your doctor and taken by mouth. Once you have completed treatment and diarrhea is resolved, your infection is no longer contagious and you no longer need to take any special precautions.