Cellulitis treatment

Simple incidents of cellulitis can be treated by your generalist prescribing antibiotics, typically penicillin or erythromycin. The real problem is if bouts of cellulitis keep recurring indicating that there is an underlying problem which requires treatment. The most common of these problems is diabetes and obviously your generalist can test you for this, but there are other much, much rarer causes of which primary lymphoedema is potentially the most serious, not least because it is so rare that most doctors will never have seen a case and yet it has the potential to kill within a few hours if the infection spreads - if the lower part of the limb (usually, but not always, a leg) shows signs of swelling even when there is no infection this is a likely cause.

If your generalist can't identify a cause, a dermatologue should be your next port of call. By chance, one of the handful of experts on lymphoedema in the world is based in Gent, but your initial contact should be with one local to where you live.

In the meantime, if you do get an episode of cellulitis combined with what feels like flu three times over you should go straight to the nearest hospital emergency department, even in the middle of the night, as you need immediate IV antibiotics treatment.