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February 12, 2026Journal of Fungi0 citationsOpen Access

Breaking the Chain of Infection: A Systematic Review of Environmental Decontamination of Candidozyma auris (2017–2025)

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APAristotelis PapadimitriouLDLida-Paraskevi DrosopoulouMTMaria Tseroni

Key Points

  • The aim is to assess the effectiveness of various environmental decontamination strategies against Candidozyma auris.
  • Systematic review conducted using PubMed and Scopus from 2017 to 2025.
  • Included 36 studies focusing on environmental hygiene interventions.
  • Evaluated the efficacy of chlorine-based disinfectants and UV-C methods against biofilms and planktonic cells.
  • Chlorine-based disinfectants consistently achieved reductions of ≥ 5 log10 CFU.
  • Quaternary ammonium compounds often underperformed with variable efficacy.
  • UV-C light provided significant reductions but depended on delivery and geometry.

Abstract

Candidozyma auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast that readily contaminates healthcare environments, persisting on dry surfaces and enabling transmission and difficult-to-control outbreaks. A systematic review of environmental hygiene interventions targeting C. auris was conducted, focusing on efficacy against planktonic cells and surface-associated biofilms (including dry-surface biofilms, DSB where available). PubMed and Scopus were searched for English-language records published from 1 January 2017 to 30 September 2025, and study selection followed PRISMA 2020. Thirty-six studies from nine countries met the inclusion criteria. These were predominantly laboratory efficacy evaluations using carrier/suspension or quantitative surface methods reporting log10 Colony Forming Unit (CFU) reductions; only seven studies assessed biofilm-associated C. auris. Across clades I–IV, chlorine-based disinfectants and oxidizing chemistries (hydrogen peroxide/peracetic acid formulations) most consistently achieved high-level reductions (often ≥ 5 log10 CFU) under label-relevant conditions. In contrast, products containing only quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) frequently underperformed and demonstrated greater variability. No-touch methods, particularly 254 nm ultraviolet-C light (UV-C), provided meaningful adjunctive reductions, but were highly dependent on dose delivery and geometry, and evidence for ozone-based approaches was mixed. Limited data on C. auris DSBs suggest planktonic testing may overestimate real-world conditions and underscore the importance of endpoints, such as transfer prevention and regrowth suppression.

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Cite This Study

Papadimitriou et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/698d6eeb5be6419ac0d54e94https://doi.org/10.3390/jof12020131
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