Background & objectives:

A study was conducted in two rehabilitation centers at Mangalore with an aim to determine the microbiological and clinical effectiveness of Chlorhexidine Gluconate 0.2% as an antifungal agent in pediatric HIV patients and also to determine clinical correlation of oral manifestations and clinical efficacy of Chlorhexidine Gluconate 0.2% as a prognostic marker in pediatric HIV patient with different CD4 cell counts.

Study design:

This was a clinical study conducted on 30 HIV+ve children. Inclusion in the study was based on oral examination and positive oral culture for Candida. At baseline, 25 subjects with no clinical lesions but who were culture-positive for Candida were placed on preventive therapy of CHX once daily for 90 days. 5 Subjects with clinical oral candidiasis were placed on therapeutic CHX twice daily. All 30subjects received regular oral exams at 30th, 60th and 90th day intervals. At 90 days oral swabs were again taken for Candida. Colony-forming units (CFU) were determined before and after CHX treatment.

Results:

Of 30 culture-positive subjects all were included in the CFU analyses. After 90 days of CHX oral rinse therapy, 21 Subjects achieved complete elimination of CFU at the end of 90 days. In 18 subjects candida albicans were undetectable at the end of 90 days and 4 subjects had 10 fold reduction in the colonies after 90 days, though a complete elimination was not possible among them.