This disorder is common, especially among children and adolescents. Boils often appear on the scalp, buttocks, face, or underarms. They are red colored, tender, and painful, and appear suddenly. Within twenty-four hours, a boil will become red and filled with pus. Both fever and swelling of the lymph glands nearest the boil may occur.
Boils are contagious.
The pus that drains when a boil opens can contaminate nearby skin, causing new boils, or can enter the bloodstream and spread to other body parts. A carbuncle is a cluster of boils that occurs when the infection spreads and other boils are formed. The formation of a carbuncle may be an indication of immune depression. Without treatment, a boil usually comes to ahead, opens, drains, and heals in ten to twenty-five days. With treatment, symptoms are less severe and new boils should not appear.