Vaginal candidiasis is often associated with pregnancy, high estrogen oral contraceptives, diabetes, antibiotics use, tight fitting clothes, dietary factors and sexually transmitted disease. Local therapies include topical creams to treat candida infections in the skin, vaginal creams to treat vaginal candidiasis and lozenges or mouth washes to treat candida in the mouth. Generally speaking, local therapy will be the first choice for treating candidiasis. Systemic therapies can be used for any type of candidiasis. They must be used for esophageal candidiasis or candidiasis that has spread throughout the body.
Intravenous treatment is generally the least desired option because it can have many side effects.
It is left as a last resort in rare but serious, life-threatening cases that have not responded to other treatments. This is partly due to the widespread, long-term use of azole drugs for treating and preventing candidiasis. Newer liposomal versions of the drug, such as amphotericin B lipid complex, or ABLC, have proven less toxic to the kidneys than its earlier formula. The study found that people were more likely to tolerate ABLC and were thus more likely to be able to take the drug until their fungal infection successfully cleared. Even among people with some underlying kidney disease, ABLC was better tolerated, resulting in only very small changes in kidney function tests.