 [ Symptoms ] my college student has swollen and oozing skin on forehead swollen lymph glands and headache is it impetigo or mrsa  my son is away at college and is a former wrestler he believes he has impetigo which he had in the past he started taking a refill of bactrim and is using muprocin his glands are no longer swollen but woke up today with a very swollen forehead his roommate had mrsa swelling of his hand 3 months ago and he is worried that it may be more than impetigo [ Disease ] it is not possible to make a blind diagnosis of a dermatological problem i would need to examine your son which obviously i cannot impetigo is a staph strep infection mrsa is a specific type of staph infection both can cause those symptoms and both would require a wound culture to make the diagnostic distinction if he is worried about mrsa the culture is essential bactrim and bactroban would treat staph infection but strep one cause of impetigo would not be improved by bactrim send him to student health or an urgent care facility so he can be examined tested and treated