Micr obial contamination of mobile phones in a health care setting in Alexandria, Egypt Mikrobielle Kontamination von Mobiltelefonen in einer Gesundheitseinrichtung in Alexandria, Ägypten

Abstract Aim:Thisstudyaimedatinvestigatingthemicrobialcontaminationofmobilephonesinahospitalsetting. HebaSayedSelim 1 AmaniFaroukAbaza 1 Methods:Swabsampleswerecollectedfrom40mobilephonesofpa-tientsandhealthcareworkersattheAlexandriaUniversityStudents’Hospital.Theyweretestedfortheirbacterialcontaminationatthemi- 1MicrobiologyDepartment, crobiologylaboratoryoftheHighInstituteofPublicHealth.Quantification HighInstituteofPublicHealth,AlexandriaUniversity,Alexandria,Egypt ofbacteriawasperformedusingbothsurfacespreadandpourplatemethods.Isolatedbacterialagentswereidentifiedusingstandardmi-crobiologicalmethods.Methicillin-resistantStaphylococcusaureuswasidentifiedbydiskdiffusionmethoddescribedbyBauerandKirby.Isol-atedGram-negativebacilliweretestedforbeingextendedspectrumbetalactamaseproducersusingthedoublediskdiffusionmethodac-cordingtotheClinicalandLaboratoryStandardsInstituterecommenda-tions.Results:Allofthetestedmobilephones(100%)werecontaminatedwitheithersingleormixedbacterialagents.Themostprevalentbacterialcontaminantsweremethicillin-resistantS.aureusandcoagulase-neg-ativestaphylococcirepresenting53%and50%,respectively.Themeanbacterialcountwas357CFU/ml,whilethemedianwas13CFU/mlusingthepourplatemethod.Thecorrespondingfigureswere2,192and1,720organisms/phoneusingthesurfacespreadmethod.Conclusions:Mobilephonesusageinhospitalsettingsposesariskoftransmissionofavarietyofbacterialagentsincludingmultidrug-resistantpathogens as methicillin-resistant S.aureus. The surface spreadmethodisaneasyandusefultoolfordetectionandestimationofbac-terialcontaminationofmobilephones.Keywords:mobilephones,bacterialcontamination,handhygiene,MRSA,ESBL

[1]  Ahmet Dilek,et al.  Are we aware how contaminated our mobile phones with nosocomial pathogens? , 2009 .

[2]  A. Gikas,et al.  Impact of the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) Multidimensional Hand Hygiene Approach over 13 Years in 51 Cities of 19 Limited-Resource Countries from Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe , 2013, Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

[3]  Abhinav Singh,et al.  Mobile phones in hospital settings: a serious threat to infection. , 2012, Occupational health & safety.

[4]  Nasia Safdar,et al.  Reduction in nosocomial infection with improved hand hygiene in intensive care units of a tertiary care hospital in Argentina. , 2005, American journal of infection control.

[5]  Moumita Sardar,et al.  Study of the role of mobile phones in the transmission of Hospital acquired infections , 2014 .

[6]  V. Singh,et al.  Telephone mouthpiece as a possible source of hospital infection. , 1998, The Journal of the Association of Physicians of India.

[7]  K. H. Pollock,et al.  Biostatistics: A Foundation for Analysis in the Health Sciences. , 1976 .

[8]  Q. Zahiruddin,et al.  Microbiological flora of mobile phones of resident doctors , 2012 .

[9]  A. Benzer,et al.  Bacterial contamination of anaesthetists' hands by personal mobile phone and fixed phone use in the operating theatre , 2007, Anaesthesia.

[10]  C. Ustun,et al.  Health Care Workers’ Mobile Phones: A Potential Cause of Microbial Cross-Contamination Between Hospitals and Community , 2012, Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene.

[11]  A. Bauer,et al.  Antibiotic susceptibility testing by a standardized single disk method. , 1966, American journal of clinical pathology.

[12]  F. Bowden,et al.  Staphylococcus aureus and stethoscopes , 2003, The Medical journal of Australia.

[13]  M. Raghavendra,et al.  Bacteriological Screening of Hands and Mobile Phones of Healthcare Workers and Its Management , 2014 .

[14]  F. Gordin,et al.  Bacterial Contamination of Computer Keyboards in a Teaching Hospital , 2003, Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

[15]  P. Srikanth,et al.  Mobile phones: emerging threat for infection control , 2010 .

[16]  D. N. Tagoe,et al.  Bacterial Contamination of Mobile Phones: When Your Mobile Phone Could Transmit More Than Just a Call , 2011 .

[17]  F. Lowy.  Staphylococcus aureus infections. , 2009, The New England journal of medicine.

[18]  H. Trivedi,et al.  Role of Mobile Phone in Spreading Hospital Acquired Infection: A Study in Different Group of Health Care Workers , 2011 .

[19]  R. Brady,et al.  Is your phone bugged? The incidence of bacteria known to cause nosocomial infection on healthcare workers' mobile phones. , 2006, The Journal of hospital infection.

[20]  Elaine Lee,et al.  Keypad mobile phones are associated with a significant increased risk of microbial contamination compared to touch screen phones , 2013 .