Can chlorhexidine bathing reduce Candidozyma auris shedding?

Gabrielle M Gussin; Raveena D Singh; Ken Kleinman; Raheeb Saavedra; Julie A Shimabukuro; Evelyn A Flores; Loren G Miller; Cassiana E Bittencourt; Susan S Huang

doi:10.1093/cid/ciaf704

Can chlorhexidine bathing reduce Candidozyma auris shedding?

Clin Infect Dis. 2025 Dec 30:ciaf704. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaf704. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, California, United States.
² Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention, University of California Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Public and Population Health, Irvine, California, United States.
³ Program in Biostatistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States.
⁴ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California Irvine Health, Orange, California, United States.
⁵ Division of Infectious Disease, Lundquist Institute at Harbor-University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, and Harbor-University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, Torrance, California, United States.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention, University of California Irvine Health, Orange, California, United States.

Abstract

This settle plate study demonstrated rapid Candidozyma auris shedding during nursing home caregiving activities, with an 80% reduction when residual chlorhexidine gluconate concentrations ≥156 µg/mL. Findings highlight high-contact care as key transmission points and provide novel evidence that chlorhexidine-based decolonization can effectively mitigate C. auris transmission risk in long-term care.

Keywords: Candida auris; chlorhexidine bathing; decolonization; nursing homes.

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Abstract

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