Antimicrobial scrubs: what they actually do

Read the manufacturer’s own words rather than the marketing. Cherokee’s listings state that garments featuring antimicrobial technology do not protect users or others against bacteria, viruses, or other disease organisms. That is the brand selling the feature, telling you what it is not. Everything else on this page follows from that sentence.

What the treatment is for

Two things, both real and both modest.

Odor. The smell in worn fabric comes from bacteria metabolizing sweat. A treatment that inhibits those organisms reduces the smell. Over a twelve-hour shift in a warm unit that is a genuine quality-of-life benefit.

Garment life. The same organisms degrade fibers over time. Inhibiting them extends how long the garment lasts. Cherokee states 50+ washings for its treatment, which is the only durability figure we found published.

What it is not for

It is not infection control. It does not protect you from what is on your scrubs, it does not protect patients from what is on your scrubs, and it does not reduce transmission. The manufacturers say this themselves, in the small print under the feature they are selling.

It is also not fluid resistance. These are separate properties, and everyday scrubs have neither - WonderWink states “AAMI Level Not Rated, non-fluid-resistant” on its own listings, which is true of essentially every scrub in this price range.

The treatments you will see named

Certainty (Cherokee), which also appears as “Certainty Advanced Odor-Resistant Fabric Technology” on some listings - the branding is inconsistent between garments, which makes it harder to tell whether the underlying treatment differs.

Silvadur (Jaanuu, and noted on some FIGS listings), a silver-ion based treatment. It appears across Jaanuu’s lines, though no wash-count figure is published.

Where a brand mentions a treatment without naming it or stating a durability figure, treat it as marketing rather than a specification.

Does it survive laundering?

Cherokee’s 50+ washings is the only published number we found. On four shifts a week with a garment worn once per week, that is roughly a year - which is a reasonable garment life anyway, so the treatment plausibly lasts as long as the scrub does.

No brand publishes what happens after that, and nobody publishes whether industrial laundering degrades it faster than home washing. Those are fair questions with no available answer.

Is it worth paying extra for?

A small amount, for odor, if you work warm units or long shifts. It is also worth noting that most of the garments carrying these treatments would be reasonable buys without them - the treatment is bundled with the line rather than sold separately, so you are rarely paying a specific premium for it.

What genuinely helps with odor, in order: a lighter fabric with real moisture management, washing them promptly rather than leaving them in a bag, skipping fabric softener (it coats fibers and traps odor), and owning enough sets that nothing gets worn twice. The treatment is a useful addition to those rather than a substitute for them.