Bacterial Contamination of Mobile Phones of Health Care Providers in a Teaching Hospital in Hamadan Province, Iran

Abstract

Background:The use of mobile phone by clinical staffs enhances transmission of pathogens and therefore, might intensify the hardship of interrupting infection spread. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine bacterial colonization on the mobile phones used by clinical staffs in hospitals. Patients and Methods:We randomly selected and examined 250 mobile phones from their users. The phones were obtained from the following study groups: Group A, 125 clinical staffs including physicians, nurses, residents, and interns; and group B, 125 university headquarters staffs. Isolated microorganisms were identified using biochemical tests such as Gram stain, morphology, catalase, and oxidase reaction, and all isolates were allocated to appropriate genera. Antibiotic sensitivity test was done using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Results: In total, 99.2% of mobile phones in clinical staffs group demonstrated growth of bacterial species. The most common isolate were consecutively coagulase-negative staphylococci (82.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (20.0%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.0%). Among controls, 93.6% of mobile phones demonstrated growth of bacterial species. For eradication of coagulase-negative staphylococci, the highest resistance rate was detected to oxacillin. For inhibition of S. aureus, the highest resistance was detected to Oxacillin. For eradicating P. aeruginosa, considerable resistance rate to ampicillin was detected in both study groups. Conclusions: Mobiles contamination with different pathogens is extremely common among our health care staffs compared with other societies, and resistance of these isolates to various antibiotics is also detectable. Thus, quick assessment of this issue to prevent the spread of these infectious agents is critical for the authorities in our health care systems.

The presence and spectrum of bacteria colonising mobile phones of staff and caregivers in high disease burden paediatric and neonatal wards in an urban teaching hospital in Durban, South Africa

“…This is lower than the prevalence found in other studies, but still of concern in view of the possible risk factor for spread of infection. [10][11][12] All HCWs and caregivers need to be educated on a regular basis about infection control and the importance thereof, with emphasis on the mandatory use of disinfectants before and after any procedures and handling of phones. Standard guidelines on mobile phone usage by HCWs as well as caregivers, need to be formulated for general paediatric wards and neonatal units.…”

Microbial contamination of cell phones of nursing department students in Technical Institute of Baqubah, Iraq

“…These results do not agree with another study performed by Sedihgi et al isolates Bacillus spp. By about (0.8%) from the cell phone of Health Care Providers in a Teaching Hospital in Hamadan Province, Iran (Sedighi et al, 2015). E. coli, S. viridians and Proteus spp.…”

Epidemiology of oxacillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus from cell phones of health-care workers in Ekiti State

“…This finding agrees with that reported by [39] who observed 52.5% ORSA amongst health-care workers of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital. Also, [40] recovered 20% S. aureus from 250 phones sampled and observed that they showed high resistance to oxacillin. However, the reports of [41], [42] showed lower recoveries of ORSA with only 4.0% and 1.8% in New-Zealand and India respectively.…”